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SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
NEW YORK - BOSTON - CHICAGO - DALLAS 
ATLANTA + SAN FRANCISCO 
MACMILLAN & CO., Limrrep 
LONDON + BOMBAY - CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Lrp. 

TORONTO 


: 
ey 


a BEER 


= RTE EN 


SPANISH 
ALTA CALIFORNIA 


a ae . + ; %, Ay 
ALBERTA JOHNSTON DENIS gy ——— “©, 
DB ric 


Decorations by 


LOREN BARTON 


jaem Bork 
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
1927 


All rights reserved 


979. 4° 


=r. 


~ Copyricut, 1927, 
By THE MACHIEDAN CON 
PRINTED IN THE 


TO 
CALIFORNIA— 
CARISIMA MIA— 
COMING INTO THE UNION 
A SOVEREIGN STATE, 
NEVER A TERRITORY} 
BRINGING, AS HER CONTRIBUTION 
TO THE MIGHT AND MAJESTY 
OF 
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 
HER GOLD AND SILVER, FRUITS AND FLOWERS, 
HER SKIES OF HEAVENLY BLUE, 
AND 
HER SUNLIGHT— 
I DEDICATE THIS BOOK. 


i 


THE ROAD 


Winding away, 

Through the alisal, 

Is the Royal Road— 

El Camino Real; 

On every mile of all its length 
A story is writ. 


The tale that it tells 

Is of mission bells, 

Of dons and hidalgos 

Of Spain; 

A story of prowess and strength, 
Or of love, perhaps; 

Of a Spanish song 

With a soft refrain—and a strain 
Like the moan of a dove. 


vii 


Vill 


THE ROAD 


’Tis almost the path 

The padres trod— 

Franciscan padres in garb of brown, 
Sandaled feet, shorn of crown— 

The snow-capped sierras looking down, 
As they bore aloft 

The Word of God 

Like an oriflamme! 


II 


Winding away, 

Through the alisal, 

Is the Royal Road— 

El Camino Real— 

Changing each moment 

Its dusky hue; 

Becoming a satiny ribbon of blue, 
Reflects, throws back 

From its mirrorlike face 

Rose, green, and purple, like filmy lace; 
Flashes of turquoise in loops and whirls; 
Swift glinting gold in endless swirls; 
Away, and away and away— 


And for every mile 
Of all its length, 
A story is writ! 


THE NAME 


In the diary of the Rodriguez Cabrillo expedition for the 
year 1542, written by Juan Paez, the name ‘‘California” 
appears three times without introduction, implying recogni- 
tion, with no suggestion that it is used for the first time, 
but quite as though well known. In the narratives pub- 
lished many years later, drawn by Ramusio—and, in turn, 
from him, by Hakluyt—directly from the journal of Fran- 
cisco Preciado, who, in some capacity, was with the Ulloa 
expedition of 1539, thus antedating the Cabrillo expedition, 
the name is seen several times. But to those who have 
specialized, this does not carry with it the conviction that 
it was in the Preciado document. On the contrary, looked 
at with their eyes, there is evidence that it was introduced 
by those writers, and, of the two, with less conscience by 
Hakluyt, in order to bring the subject matter up to date, 
for the name was in common use by that time. There is 
no way to verify this, for, long since lost sight of, ““The 
Spanish original of Preciado’s narrative is still missing” 
(Putnam). Nevertheless, it is borne out by the fact that 
in the certified reports sent back from Cedros Island by 
Ulloa to Cortés, who had despatched the expedition, and 
again sworn to before a notary in Mexico, the name is not 
found. It is significant that “Hernan Cortés never used 
the word, nor did anyone in his service” (ibid.). On the 
other hand, in the Juan Paez diary, its right to be just where 
it is has never been disputed. It stands unquestioned and 
as though needing no explanation. Would there had been 
one as to why and by whom bestowed! 

As it is, the name is still surrounded by an aura of mys- 

ix 


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SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo was, so far as there is authentic 
record, the first white man to set foot on the land we now 
know as California. 

This was in 1542—only fifty years after the discovery 
of America—and yet it was not until two hundred and 
twenty-seven years later that the first group of settlers 
arrived. There were reasons this was not brought about 
sooner and they were very, simple. As one reads, the 
wonder grows, not that nothing was done toward that end 
up to that time, but that even as early as 1769 an attempt, 
if made, could have been successful. 

It is assumed that the Chinese had visited the western 
coast of the Americas many centuries before this time. An 
Oriental influence is seemingly observable in the symbolism, 
religious rites, manners, and customs of the indigenes, and 
occasionally there are linguistic similarities and other indi- 
cations purely Chinese. ‘These are not such evidence of 
their presence as are coins and implements found in vari- 
ous places. How they, or other Orientals, arrived is 
another matter. It would not have been difficult had they 
come in their junks and of their own volition, aided by the 
great oceanic current around the northern curve below the 
island chain, and down the coast of the continental main- 
land opposite. Or, they may have been swept along and 
brought across, willing or not, by this same river of the 
ocean, the so-called ‘‘Black Stream” which leaves Japan 
with a speed of from seventy-five to one hundred miles a 
day. 

With the discovery of America by Columbus, Spain 

[1] 


2 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


began a mighty struggle for supremacy in the New World. 
In 1510, the Spaniards were in Panama, and later a move- 
ment to extend dominion northward began. 

From the West Indies to Mexico came Hernan Cortés, 
landing in April, 1519, and founding Vera Cruz. In 1521, 
on August 13, when he conquered Tenochtitlan (Mexico 
City) a new base for Spain was gained. In 1523, Cortes 
was made Governor of New Spain with unlimited power, 
and Spanish conquest was pushed rapidly southward. In 
a very few years, everything from Mexico to Panama was 
under the flag of Spain. To Cortés, the Americas meant a 
chain of islands stretching along the coast of Asia. To 
him, Mexico was a projection from that coast, or separated 
from it by the “Strait of Anian,’ reported discovered by 
Gaspar Cortereal, a Portuguese navigator, between 1499 
and 1501, while exploring the coast of Labrador, and was 
supposed to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, some- 
where to the north of the Americas. 

Cortés had a chart in his possession, on which it was 
shown as running from Newfoundland on the one side to 
the East Indies on the other. Cortés knew that in 1520 
the Portuguese navigator in the service of Spain, Fernao 
de Magalhaes—called by the Spaniards Fernando Ma- 
gallanes, and known to us as Magellan—had found an open- 
ing through the supposed chain of islands, had crossed the 
ocean which, for some inexplicable reason of his own, he 
named the Pacific, and, at the other end of the fringe of 
islands skirting the entire Asiatic coast, had discovered 
islands named by him Las Islas San Lazaro, but which 
came to be known as Las Islas Ponientes—The Westerly 
Isles—‘‘The Islands of the Setting Sun,” and renamed The 
Philippines. ‘To Cortés, with these dazzling records to 
stimulate his imagination, to be the means of discovering 
the Strait of Anian on the Pacific side became an ever 
present desire. By sending out expedition after expe- 
dition of exploration and discovery, often under royal 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 3 


orders and, usually, at his own expense, Cortés hoped that 
eventually this evasive strait would be, through him, defi- 
nitely located and charted for the benefit of Spain and to 
his own honor and glory. 

New Spain already covered an immense area, most of it 
still unexplored; but a vast territory still unconquered—an 
unknown world of possibilities—stretched away to the 
north, and expansion began in that direction and followed 
three principal lines in the first of the three regular phases 
of Spanish conquest: exploration and discovery. The trend 
was up the central plateau to New Mexico, into Texas, and 
northwestward to Sonora and the Californias. With this 
last only have we to do. The terrible problem of Indian 
warfare confronted all alike. 

The first movement northwestward, however, was by 
water, made under authority from Cortés, in 1533, reach- 
ing Baja or Lower California, probably at La Paz. 

In 1535, Cortés, himself, founded a settlement there, 
which did not long survive. That his efforts in that direc- 
tion were not entirely appreciated is evident from the fol- 
lowing: that there were those who, under their breath, 
“cursed ‘Cortés, his island, his bay, and his discovery’ ” 
(Greenhow. Diaz). 

At this time, stories of the adventures of Alvar Nunez 
Cabeza de Vaca, repeated by one to another, were creating 
in the hearers a desire to go in search of the “Seven Golden 
Cities of Cibola,” of which he had heard, lying in all their 
splendor somewhere in the mysterious north. ‘These he had 
not seen, but it had been spread about that one of them had 
actually been seen, shining in the sun, larger than Mexico 
City and surpassingly magnificent, by a no less reliable per- 
son than the Franciscan friar, Marcos de Niza, who had, 
also, seen what he was convinced was the Strait of Anian. 

In 1535, New Spain became a viceroyalty, and the first 
viceroy was Don Antonio de Mendoza. 

In 1539, an expedition under Francisco de Ulloa was 


4 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


despatched by Cortés from Acapulco, which followed the 
coast to the mouth of the Colorado River, descending the 
gulf on the opposite side, doubling Cape San Lucas, and 
proceeding up the west coast of Baja California to a point 
beyond ‘‘an island near the coast, under the 28th parallel 
of latitude, which they named Isle of Cedars’’ (Greenhow), 
thus demonstrating that what had, up to that time, been 
supposed to be an island was in reality a peninsula. This 
fact was not accepted generally for more than two hundred 
years. 

A year later, in another direction, Francisco Vasquez 
de Coronado went forth, under orders from the viceroy, at 
the head of ‘‘two hundred picked mounted lancers, many 
in armor; and in the train were a thousand men of various 
nationalities; and all in all, over one thousand horses—a 
splendid force for the time” (Holder), going on as far as 
what is now Kansas, searching in vain for the rich province 
of Quivira and for the Seven Golden Cities, and finding in 
their stead, along their line of march, other than the 
deserted prehistoric so-called Casas Grandes de los Aztecas 
—Great Houses of the Aztecs—only the adobe pueblos of 
the Indians. 

Hernando de Alarcon, planning to codperate with Coro- 
nado, made the first direct approach by way of the Colorado 
River toward Alta California, but did not ascend as far 
as the Gila. In his trail came Melchor Diaz, left behind 
by Coronado, who crossed the Colorado, but at a point 
south of the Gila. 

In 1540, Cortés had returned permanently to Spain. 
Supreme power was now held by the viceroy. Working in 
harmony with him was the Governor of Guatemala, Don 
Pedro de Alvarado, who had been a trusted lieutenant and 
companion of Cortés. He was the hero of El Salto de 
Alvarado—Alvarado’s Leap—on July 1, 1520, in the gray 
dawn of the morning following, La Noche Triste—The 
Disastrous Night—at which time-he was called by the Tlas- 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 5 


calans, lost in wonder and admiration, “ ‘Tonatiuh—the 
child of the Sun!’ ” 

Alvarado had been granted permission to undertake an 
independent enterprise to the north at his own expense. 
He had the ships, and all his preparations were far 
advanced, when, while making an attack upon Indians in 
revolt, he was crushed either by a mass of dislodged rocks 
or by his horse falling on him, death resulting, later, from 
the injuries thus sustained. 

The viceroy then took over the matter, and two of 
Alvarado’s ships, the San Salvador and Vitoria, were 
speedily made ready. In command of both vessels was the 
Portuguese navigator who had been selected by Alvarado, 
Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo. Although, to Ferrelo, his piloto 
mayor, he was Juan Rodriguez, he is known to us as 
Cabrillo, which was probably his mother’s name. In these 
countries, for one or another of several reasons, the family 
name of the mother is often used in combination with the 
patronymic, but rarely alone unless the bar sinister lies 
across the escutcheon. 

It is sometimes stated that the expedition under command 
of Cabrillo, which set sail from the port of Navidad, 
June 27, 1542, known as the “Navidad expedition,” sailed 
under orders from Cortés. At that time, Cortés had been 
about two years in Spain, but it was not at all impossible 
that, prior to departure from New Spain and contemplat- 
ing an early return, he had planned such an expedition. Be 
that as it may, Cabrillo’s instructions were very much the 
same as those usually given by Cortés: ‘‘He was to explore 
the outer shore as far toward the north as possible, and 
particularly to be watchful for the long looked for Strait 
of Anian. He was also to look for cities and rich 
countries” (Eldredge). , 

Cabrillo’s two little vessels were caravels of a sort, of 
the type sent out by Cortés, not so good as those used by 
Columbus, for they were badly constructed, as were all the 


6 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


vessels built at that time on the west coast of Mexico, 
‘where the means for shipbuilding were few. As all the 
metal required for their construction, as well as the cord- 
age, and such other material as nature did not provide near 
the hastily improvised shipyards, had to be carried across 
Mexico on men’s shoulders, great economy was certainly 
practised in the use of everything but wood” (ibid.). 


Past Cape San Lucas, and slowly up the outer coast, went 

the two caravels. Everything was carefully observed and 
painstakingly recorded; thus, in the Relation, or Diary of 
the Voyage, under date of September 17, “they found a 
good port well inclosed, and to arrive there they passed 
by a smallisland . .. . In this port they obtained water 
in a little pond of rain-water, and there are groves resem- 
bling silk-cotton trees, except that it is a hard wood. 
It is a good country in appearance. There are large cabins, 
and the herbage like that of Spain, and the land is high 
and rugged. They saw herds of animals like flocks of sheep, 
which went together by the hundred or more, which 
resembled in appearance and movement Peruvian sheep, and 
with long wool. They have small horns of a span in length 
and as thick as the thumb, and the tail is broad and round 
and of the length of a palm” (Evans). 

After taking possession in the name of Spain and naming 
this port San Mateo, the expedition proceeded on its way 
on Saturday, the 23d of September, keeping fairly close 
inshore; and, although none were seen, the presence of 
Indians was evidenced, as the expedition advanced, by great 
signal smokes seen on the land. Islands were passed, and 
on Thursday, the 28th, the Diary tells us, ‘‘a port inclosed 
and very good” was discovered; ‘‘. . . and after anchoring 
in it they went on shore, which had people, three of whom 
remained and all the others fled” (ibid.). Presents were 
given to those who remained, and they and others who 
came the next day conveyed the idea by signs that in the 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 7 


interior people like the Spaniards had passed, ‘“‘with beards, 
and clothed and armed like those of the ships, and they 
made signs that they carried cross-bows and swords . 
and went running in a posture as if riding on horseback”’ 
(ibid.). It is recorded that these Indians ‘manifested much 
_ fear” of the strangers; but, nevertheless, and notwithstand- 
ing this fear, it is further recorded that a party “This same 
day at night . . . went on shore from the ships to fish 
with a net, and . . . there were here some Indians, 
and they began to discharge arrows and wounded three 
men” (ibid.). However, they considered the natives well 
disposed. 

The Diary reads: “Being in this port there passed a very 
great tempest, but on account of the port’s being good they 
suffered nothing. It was a violent storm from the west- 
southwest and south-southwest”’ (ibid.). Mention is made 
that this is the first storm experienced. ‘This port was 
named by Cabrillo San Miguel. 

There has been no end of discussion as to whether this 
port “inclosed and very good,” where, although the wind 
blew ‘‘from the west-southwest and south-southwest,” “‘they 
suffered nothing,’ named by Cabrillo San Miguel, was that 
named later San Diego or the port of San Pedro. Some 
historians state positively, without “ifs and ans,” that it 
was the one, while others are quite as positive that it was 
the other. Bancroft says: “I prefer to regard San Miguel 
as San Diego.”’ To one familiar with both harbors, who 
follows the Diary carefully, Cabrillo’s San Miguel is, 
indeed, the harbor of San Diego and no other. 

To rely on latitudes as given is impossible; the reckon- 
ing was always out, and in stormy weather still farther 
“out.” This does not argue any lack of skill in the navi- 
gator, for, at that time, the “instruments by which they 
fixed their course, or made their reckonings at sea were 
of the most primitive kind. They knew the use of the 
compass, could find their latitude approximately, but their 


8 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


longitude they had no means of computing. For finding 
their latitude they had a wooden cross-staff, or a metal 
astrolabe, the one about as difficult to handle and as 
unreliable as the other. ‘The use of either required the 
observer to look in two directions at the same time” 
(Eldredge). 

Leaving San Miguel on Tuesday, October 3, passing 
‘‘many valleys,’ and seeing ‘“‘many large smokes, and, in 
the interior, sierras,” at daybreak on October 7 they 
anchored off islands which Cabrillo named Vitoria and San 
Salvador. 

Although at first the women were frightened and ran 
away, the Spaniards managed to convey assurances of 
friendliness. Amicable relations were soon established, the 
natives signaling to come ashore. Not waiting for the invi- 
tation to be accepted, bows and arrows were laid aside and 
eight or ten Island Indians put off in a large canoe, and 
came alongside. ‘They were given beads and trinkets, and 
departed well pleased. ‘“The Spaniards afterwards went 
ashore and were very secure, they and the Indian women 
and all” (Evans). Again came the story of men like them- 
selves, journeying on the mainland. 

The carefully recorded details in the Relation of 
Cabrillo’s voyage up the coast, over the uncharted waters 
of the “South Sea,” are full of little matters of interest, 
almost too many from which to choose, and too prolix for 
this busy age. 

On Sunday, the 8th, a bay was seen and behind it “many 
smokes.’ Of course, it became La Bahia de los Fumos— 
The Bay of the Smokes. Farther north, a village was seen 
where the houses were “large in the manner of those of 
New Spain’; and where there ‘“‘came to the ships many 
very good canoes which held in each one twelve or thirteen 
Indians, and they gave them notice of Christians who were 
journeying”? not seven days away—echoes of the tramp of 
Coronado’s army, wafted over desert and mountain, heard 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 9 


on the shore of the great ocean. ‘‘With these Indians they 
sent a letter at a venture to the Christians.” 

They named the village E] Pueblo de las Canoas—the 
Town of the Canoes; and, of the inhabitants, the Diary 
says: ““They go covered with some skins of animals; they 
are fishers and eat the fish raw. . .” (ibid.). 

All the way up the coast, canoes were constantly coming 
about the ships. Village after village was passed, the names 
of twenty-five being given them by the Indians, who said 
there were many more inland. The country seemed to be 
thickly populated. Some of the natives were described, who 
wore interwoven with their hair, which was very long, many 
strings to which were attached various dangling ornaments 
“fof flint and wood and bone.”’ 

Near a point jutting out into the sea like a galley, which 
‘they called El] Cabo de Galera, they encountered a fresh 
wind, necessitating a run for the open sea. In this way 
they discovered that there were two islands which had 
seemed to be one; and these Cabrillo named Las Islas San 
Lucas, calling the farthest to windward, which had a very 
good port, La Posesion; and there they remained, held by 
the storm for a week. 

Under a later date, the record reads: ‘“The Indians of 
these islands are very poor. They are fishermen; they eat 
nothing but fish; they sleep on the ground; all their business 
and employment is to fish. In each house they say there 
are fifty souls. ‘They live very swinishly; they go naked” 
(ibid.). 

Venturing forth from this refuge, they were beaten about 
by wild storms and unable to anchor. They sought shelter 
under El] Cabo de Galera, and, finally, farther down 
the coast at Las Sardinas—where on their northward 
trip quantities of sardines had been brought to the ships 
by the Indians—they were able to take on wood and 
water. 


In this vicinity were many villages, ruled over by an aged 


10 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


woman who visited the capitana and slept two nights on 
board, as did also a number of other Indians. 

Leaving Las Sardinas on November 6, they proceeded 
very slowly because of light winds and did not make El 
Cabo de Galera until the roth, but, doubling the cape, they 
sailed with a good wind on the following day in front of 
a chain of high mountains, naming them Las Sierras de 
San Martin. | 

A bold and precipitous shore, against which beat a heavy 
surf, offered little hope of a haven in case of need; and 
that night a gale with rain struck them, which developed 
on the next day into a veritable tempest. The caravels 
became separated, those in each believing the other lost; 
but, on the 15th, they came together again. The little 
consort, Vitoria, was without a deck, and great misery was 
endured. 

Storms continued. Seeking shelter and finding none, they 
ran down the coast to Cabrillo’s Isla de la Posesion, which 
they reached on the 23d. There they wintered; and there 
Cabrillo passed away. 

The record reads: ‘While wintering in this Isla de 
Posesion, on the 3d day of January, 1543, departed from 
this present life Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, captain of the 
said ships, from a fall which he had on the same island 
at the former time when they were there, by which he 
broke an arm near the shoulder. .. . he charged them 
much at the time of his death that they should not give 


up the discovery, as far as possible, of all that coast” (ibid.). 


They renamed the island Juan Rodriguez, in memory of 
their dead commander; and there they buried him. 


The Levantine piloto mayor of the expedition, Bartolomé 
Ferrelo, assumed command, and on January 19, after 
almost two months in port at this island, they set sail for 
the mainland to search for food and to get wood, but shift- 
ing winds forced them to sail around the islands, seeking 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 11 


shelter to leeward of first one and then another, until on 
the 27th they were able to reénter the little harbor they 
had left eight days before. 

On the 29th, they again sailed away from Isla Juan 
Rodriguez to recover some anchors left at Isla San Lucas. 
They recovered the anchors and took on water, but were 
held storm-bound by snow and wind until February 12, 
when they again ventured to head for the mainland, which 
they reached but where they dared not remain because of 
high seas. Taking on water and one boatload of wood, 
they returned to the islands. 

To attempt further to follow their course, as set down, 
is bewildering, resolving itself simply into a heart-rending 
story of men, most of them ill, wet to the skin, cold, almost 
starving—on a voyage of terrifying adventure—striving 
against such odds to manage their cockleshell craft—blown 
here, blown there, beating about or scudding before a gale! 


On February 28, latitude was taken in 43°, but accord- 
ing to Professor Davidson, they were “probably in latitude 
4114°, allowing a correction of one and a half degrees.”’ 
Historians seem to agree that the Navidad expedition went 
little if any farther than 42°. 

“They ran this night [of February 28] . . . with great 
difficulty, and . . . in the morning, the wind shifted to the 
southwest with great fury, the seas coming from many 
directions, causing them great fatigue and breaking over 
the ships; and as they had no decks, if God had not suc- 
cored them they could not have escaped. Not being able 
to lay-to, they were forced to scud northeast toward the 
land; and now, thinking themselves lost, they commended 
themselves to Our Lady of Guadalupe and made their 
vows. Thus they ran... with great fear and travail, 

. with foresails lowered all night and until sunset the 
next day; and as there was a high sea from the south it 
broke every time over the prow and swept over them as 


12 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


over a rock. The wind shifted . .. with great fury, 
forcing them to scud to the southeast and east-southeast 
until Saturday the 3d of March, with a sea so high that 
they became crazed, and if God . . . had not miraculously 
saved them they could not have escaped. On Saturday at 
midday the wind calmed down . . . for which they gave 
heartfelt thanks to our Lord. With respect to food they 
also suffered hardship, because they had nothing but dam- 
aged biscuit” (Bolton). 

On March 5, they were back again off Isla de Juan 
Rodriguez, and did not again turn their prows northward. 
Because of the storm, they were unable to enter the little 
port, and the vessels then became separated and did not 
meet again until the Vitoria, on the way south, found the 
San Salvador waiting at Cedros Island. 

On April 14, the two worn little vessels arrived at Navi- 
dad, from which port they had sailed in June of the previous 
year under Cabrillo, and, thus, the first voyage of explora- 
tion and discovery along the northwest coast of the Cali- 
fornias came to an end. 


But, far away, on fog-swept, wind-swept, sand-swept . 
San Miguel, lashed by the sea, a mariner gone to his rest, 
he slept, Juan Rodriguez, whom we know as “Cabrillo.” 


II 


Reports brought back by the Navidad expedition did not 
furnish sufficient reason to Spanish officials for further 
exploration at that time. 

On the northwest coast, nothing had appeared which 
seemed to indicate any menace to Spanish possessions—the 
one thing necessary to spur them to immediate action. Not 
even the face of a white man had been seen, and none heard 
of, other than rumors of Spaniards journeying far away 
in the interior. The Strait of Anian had not been dis- 
covered; nor were there cities, rich or otherwise, but only 
Indian villages inhabited by a large and entirely uncivilized 
population of an extremely low order of intelligence. 

There was no expedition sent out in that direction from 
New Spain for sixty years. During that time, interest in 
the Philippine trade ran high in the Western World, and, 
later, as things turned out, the Philippine trade had a very 
great deal to do with the settlement of Alta California. 
Galleons left the port of Acapulco in February or March, 
returning in December or January. In the voyage out 
from Mexico came ‘‘men, arms, unscrupulousness, chicanery 
and administrative ability; returning they brought spices, 
silks, oriental treasures, jewels and gems” (Hittell). These 
cargoes, worth sometimes several million pesos, were not 
made up of merchandise from the Philippines; but those 
islands became a rendezvous for Chinese junks, and Oriental 
craft of all sorts, bringing the products of their countries. 


As to the northwest coast of the Californias, our next 
source of information is an Englishman—Francis Drake. 


[13] 


14 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


Even he did not appear on the west coast of the Americas 
for thirty-six years. 

Logically, at about this point, a few years ago there 
would have followed a reference to the nonexistence of a 
log of Drake’s voyage. At this date, that could scarcely 
pass unchallenged, for, in her book published by the 
Hakluyt Society of London, Mrs. Zelia Nuttall has, indeed, 
shed ““New Light on Drake.” The title is very appropriate. 
In the introduction, she tells of finding a book in Mexico 
which turned her attention away from archeology to his- 
toric research, eventually sending her on a pilgrimage to 
Europe to delve in the archives of Spain. 

Of the great moment in Seville, when more than she 
had dared hoped to find was in her hand, she writes: “It 
was by studying the catalogues of the Archives that I learnt 
that a narrative, written by Nuno da Silva, was contained 
in a bundle of documents relating to the Strait of Magellan. 
As the title and date recorded in the catalogue were how- 
ever incorrect, it was only after a study of the Portuguese 
pilot’s baffling entries that I fully realised that I had before 
me the only log-book extant of Drake’s famous voyage 
which had lain in obscurity for 333 years.” She adds: 
“Valuable as the fresh material is, it cannot, of course, 


ever compensate for the irreparable loss of Drake’s diary © 


of the voyage which, according to Mendoza, he presented 
to his sovereign on his return. 

‘That Drake kept a book in which he entered his navi- 
gation and painted representations of the strange new 
species of ‘birds, trees and sea-lions’ he had met with, is 
now proven. From Nuno da Silva we learn how much 
time and labour he expended upon it and how when he and 
his young cousin ‘shut themselves up in his cabin, they were 
always painting.’ ” 

When Drake outfitted his five vessels for privateering, 
there is little doubt that it was under royal license, and 
with the help of the great and godly. Her Majesty, Queen 


eS See ae 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 15 


Elizabeth, was deeply and intimately interested in the 
“lott” (plan) and had, secretly, personally contributed 
one thousand crowns to the venture. She wished to be 
revenged on “the Kynge of Spayne,”’ and to hit where it 
hurt, and, when told by Drake of the “smale good that 
was to be done in Spayne,”’ listened eagerly when he told 
her that “thonly waye was to anoy hym by his Indyes’’ 
(Cooke). 

He was magnificently installed in the Pelican, the queen 
herself contributing “‘dainties and perfumed waters to the 
provisions of Drake’s ship” (Nuttall). “‘. . . neither 
did he omit to make provision also for ornament or delight, 
carrying to this purpose with him expert musitians, rich 
furniture (all the vessels for his table, yea, many belonging 
even to the Cooke-room being of pure silver) and divers 
shewes of all sorts of curious workmanship, whereby the 
civilitie and magnificense of his native countrie might, 
amongst the nations whithersoever he should come, be the 
more admired’”’ (Nuttall. Vaux). Both the magnificent 
silver service and the ship’s cannon, all embossed with arms 
“emblematic of the voyage,” were gifts from his sovereign. 

‘The familiar statement that ‘before his departure her 
Majesty had committed her sword [to him] to use for his 
safety, with this word: ‘‘We doe account that he which 
striketh at thee, Drake, striketh at us’’ (Vaux, p. 65), is 
greatly substantiated by the fact that a gold-embroidered 
‘sea capp’ and scarf (still preserved as heirlooms in the 
Drake family) were actually given to him on that occasion 
by his sovereign” (Nuttall). 

It is said, however, that upon his return, she hesitated 
for some time about publicly recognizing what he had done. 
She had tried to keep her participation in the enterprise 
from Burleigh, as well as a knowledge of her connivance 
with el corsario (Drake) in his exploits along the American 
coasts of His Majesty’s dominion, from the King of Spain; 
but both had been thoroughly informed. Ultimately, she 


16 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


knighted him and he became “Sir Francis,’”’ and a very great 
man in more ways than one. 


It is a long story—that of Sir Francis Drake—and, from 
the beginning, thrilling; but neither the beginning nor the 
end is subject matter for a short history of Spanish Alta 
California. | | 

Drake had entered the Pacific by way of the Strait of 
Magellan; and, his ship having been driven far to the south- 
ward, discovered that the extremity of South America was 
an island, and that, there, the two oceans met. 

Just how far north or south he went cannot, with accu- 
racy, be determined, but Lope de Vega may be excused 
for having credited him with sighting the North and South 
poles, owing to the irresistible temptation of rhyming 
“navios solos’ with “dos polos,’ and because of poet’s 
license, always accorded. 

By this time, the Pelican, his own ship, was alone. Her 
name had been changed. She was now the Golden Hind, 
and on mischief bent. He was supposed to have arrived 
through the Strait of Anian, but he had not, for it had 
not been discovered by him or any one else. “ ‘While in 
the Port of Guatulco, he produced a map and pointed out 
a strait situated in 66 deg. north, saying “that he had to go 
there and that if he did not find an opening he would have 
to go back by China’”’’” (Nuttall. Da Silva). 

When he set out on this voyage, on which he eventually 
circumnavigated the globe, to search for the Strait of 
Anian for one thing, all his motives were not so pure as 
that. one, for he intended, before taking a short cut for 
home through that northwest passage, to relieve the heavily 
laden Spanish galleons, wherever found, of as much of their 
treasure as possible. 

While England and Spain were not actually at war at 
that time, they were soon after, and Spaniards were looked 
upon as enemies of England and legitimate prey. Says 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 17 


Stillman: “. . . he was not on a voyage of discovery; his 
was a business enterprise... ‘The first prize taken, 
after entering the Pacific, carried ‘‘wines of Chili . . . fine 
gold . . . and a great golden cross beset with emeralds”’ 
(Hittell). Everything that came in his way seems to have 
been appropriated: from eight bars of silver taken from a 
Spaniard lying asleep to a caravan of llamas with their 
burden of one hundred pounds of silver each; and, at Arica, 
more silver—some forty bars, described as “‘ ‘of the bigness 
and fashion of a brickbatte.’”’ From one ship alone, the 
Cacafuego, he took “besides fruit, sugar, meal and other 
provisions, eighty pounds weight of gold, thirteen chests 
of silver coin, . . . and a quantity of jewels, plate and 
precious stones, the whole valued at three hundred and sixty 
thousand pesos, equivalent to our dollars” (ibid.). 

In this wise, he filled his ship with spoil, and the principal 
reason for his so-called “‘voyage of discovery” being already 
accomplished, he determined to render a great service to 
England and definitely to locate the Strait of Anian—that 
northwest passage “‘discovered”’ so many years before by 
Gaspar Cortereal—and through it to make a quick run for 
home, which would be a brilliant climax to a voyage success- 
ful beyond imagining in other and more material ways. 

On an island off the coast of Nicaragua, the Golden Hind 
was overhauled and repaired. He then stood out to sea 
and, changing his course to the north, kept well away 
from the land. After a run of two months, his heavily 
laden ship was leaking badly; they were beating against 
head winds, and the weather was very cold, so he aban- 
doned his search and turned, at about 43°, making for the 
land, where he anchored in what is described as ‘“‘a bad 
bay.” From there he headed down the coast, and on 
June 17, 1579, in latitude 38°, 30’, 38”, found what is 
written of as a “‘conuenient and fit harborough”’ for putting 
his ship in good condition. 

Nuno da Silva was left at Guatulco by Drake and, there- 


Lo SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


fore, no further information is available from that source. 
There are several accounts upon which to draw, built for 
the most part on notes made by that worthy, Fletcher, the 
chaplain. Many of his statements have to be disregarded 


as unbelievable. In cold print, it has come down the years > 


that, after a falling out between the two, Drake excom- 
municated him ‘‘out of y‘ Church of God,” denouncing him 
“to the divell and all his angells’’ and compelling him to 
wear a band about his arm upon which was inscribed 
‘Frances Fletcher, y® falsest knave yt liveth” (Vaux). This 
connotes, or at least the impression is conveyed, that relia- 
bility was not his predominant characteristic. But, while 
Bancroft urges that ‘“‘few have been sufficiently impressed 
with the fundamental truth that Fletcher was a liar,” he 
says elsewhere that accounts based upon compilations from 
his notes ‘‘are sufficiently accurate to leave no room for 
reasonable doubt that Drake really anchored on the coast 
in the region indicated.” 

The day after the arrival of the Golden Hind in this 
harbor, Indians appeared in great numbers; one even pad- 
dled out in a canoe to within hail, then rose and made a 
long speech accompanied by many gesticulations, after 
which he paddled back to shore. ‘This was repeated sev- 
eral times, and seemed to the English a form of welcome. 

At this place, Drake remained for more than a month, 
and during that time, according to the accounts which have 
come down to us, had some remarkable interviews with 
-the aborigines. Tents for the men were erected on shore 
and, for protection, a sort of barricade of stones was 
built, and the precious cargo unloaded; and one account 
says “that Drake’s men ‘grounded his ship to trim her’ ” 
(Bancroft). 

Evidently, news of the arrival of the Golden Hind had 
spread, for, after the English were established on land, 
the number of Indians who came about the camp increased 
daily. They were permitted within the barricade and were 


- 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 19 


tremendously interested in all that was going on. They 
feasted to their fill on the seal blubber given them, as their 
own weapons were useful only in killing small game. One 
day they came in a long and formal procession, men, women, 
and children, decked out in feathers and in gala array gen- 
erally, each woman the bearer of a woven basket filled with 
herbs and other gifts. They appeared to offer sovereignty 
over the land to Drake, who, nothing loath, took posses- 
sion in the name of the queen, and for the benefit of the 
English nation, naming it New Albion in honor of the 
mother country, and also because of the white cliffs 
thereabouts. 

The natives seemed to regard the English as supernatural 
beings, and to wish to do them reverence. In order to 
disabuse their minds and to indicate, if possible, that white 
men themselves worshiped a divine being, a god, Drake 
had a service solemnized according to the Church of Eng- 
land. This seemed to impress the Indians. It was evident 
that the music made some special appeal and that they 
really enjoyed the singing of the psalms. This is the first 
record of a Christian service in Alta California. 


The ship having been entirely repaired, the precious 
cargo re-stowed, and having no fear of treachery on the 
part of the Indians, in order ‘‘to be the better acquainted 
with the nature and commodities of the country,’ Drake 
visited the interior. In The World Encompassed, we read 
‘The inland we found to be farre different from the shoare, 
a goodly country, and fruitfull soyle, stored with many 
blessings fit for the vse of man: infinite was the company 
of very large and fat Deere which there we sawe by thou- 
sands, as we supposed, in a heard; besides a multitude of 
a strange kind of Conies, by farre exceeding them in 
number: their heads and bodies, in which they resemble 
other Conies, are but small; his tayle, like the tayle of a 
Rat, exceeding long; and his feet like the pawes of a Want 


20 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


or moale; vnder his chinne, on either side, he hath a bagge, 
into which he gathereth his meate, when he hath filled his 
belly abroade, that he may with it, either feed his young, 
or feed himselfe, when he lists not to trauaile from his 
burrough; the people eate their bodies, and make great 
account of their skinnes, for their kings holidaies coate was 
made of them.” 

Where, or how far, they went cannot be determined, but 
there is no word in regard to the great harbor so near them, 
yet, from that side—with rough country, dense forests, and 
not to be despised mountains between—quite far enough 
away not to have been easily discovered. To Tuthill, this 
failure to mention it is no indication that the Golden Hind 
had not cast anchor within it, for, he says, “they were not 
hunting harbors, but fortunes in compact form. Harbors 

. were of small account to the roving Englishman.” 

It seems to be now generally conceded, nevertheless, that 
the ‘‘conuenient and fit harborough,” where the Golden 
Hind was repaired and made ready for the homeward voy- 
age, was the bay lying under Point Reyes, which was after- 
ward, in 1595, named by Cermenho La Bahia de San Fran- 
cisco, now known as Drake’s Bay. This San Francisco 
bay was never confused by the Spaniards with the mag- 
nificent sheet of water which many years later was named 
The Bay of San Francisco. 

All preparations for departure having been made, a 
large post was set up, bearing as a record of their presence 
a brass plate, upon which had been engraved the name of 
England’s queen; that the natives acknowledge submission; 
and, below this, Drake’s name. An English sixpence was 
also firmly attached, in such a way that Her Majesty’s 
likeness and name were displayed. 

Then followed ceremonies of a religious character and 
psalms were sung; and, afterward, there was a formal 
leave-taking. The Indians were, apparently, greatly dis- 
tressed, watching the ship’s progress from the hilltops and 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 21 


later lighting signal fires that those on board might know 
they were still there. 

The next morning they anchored off the Farallones, to 
kill birds and seals. Drake then turned away from the 
coast, set his course, and headed the Golden Hind directly 
for the Spice Islands. 

Here his connection with the history of California ceases, 
and we can go no farther with him. 


Ifl 


The first expedition sent out from New Spain for explo- 
ration and discovery on the northwest coast of the Cali- 
fornias, after that under Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, sailed 
from Acapulco, commanded by Sebastian Vizcaino and 
despatched by the viceroy, Gaspar de Zuniga, Conde de 
Monte Rey, under orders from Philip II] of Spain. 

But, between the expedition under Cabrillo, the Navidad 
expedition, and that under Vizcaino in 1602, two other 
navigators were instructed to investigate the possibilities 
existing on that coast for a harbor of refuge for the Manila 
galleons, and to seek for the western entrance to the Strait 
of Anian; both, however, came from the other direction, 
the Philippines. 

The first was Francisco de Gali, who came in 1584, some 
five years after the sojourn of the Englishman, Francis 
Drake, on the coast of Alta California. He had been 
specially instructed to endeavor to find a more favorable 
route for the galleons; and with this in mind, he intended 
to skirt the entire coast all the way round, from the Indies 
to Mexico. But, after leaving Japan, sailing “‘east by east 
and by north,” his vessel was swept along for some seven 
hundred leagues by the Japan Current, which he—or a 
translator—describes as ‘‘a very hollow water,” to within 
about two hundred leagues of the American coast. 

Accounts of this voyage furnish little real information. 
In the Bancroft translation, we read: ‘Then, ‘being by the 
same course upon the coast of New Spain, under 37°, 30’, 
we passed by a very high and fair land with many trees, 
wholly without snow, and four leagues from the land you 
find thereabout many drifts of roots, leaves of trees, reeds, 


[ 22 ] 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA — 23 


and other leaves like fig-leaves, the like whereof we found 
in great abundance in the country of Japan, which they 
eat; and some of those that we found, I caused to be sodden 
with flesh, and being sodden, they eat like coleworts; there 
likewise we found great store of seals; whereby it is to 
be presumed and certainly to be believed, that there are 
many rivers, bays, and havens along by those coasts to the 
haven of Acapulco. From thence we ran south-east, south- 
east and by south, and south-east and by east, as we found 
the wind, to the point called Cabo de San Lucas, which is 
the beginning of the land of California, on the north-west 
side, lying under 22°, being five hundred leagues distant 
from Cape Mendocino.’ This is all that Gali’s narrative 
contains respecting the California coast.’’ This seems to be 
the first mention of Cape Mendocino by name, but Gali 
does so incidentally, and does not assert that the name 
has been conferred on the point of land by him, in honor 
of the viceroy, Don Antonio de Mendoza, as ‘has been 
claimed for him. 

Eleven years after Gali came Sebastian Meléndez 
Rodriguez Cermenho, also under orders to make investi- 
gations along the coast of the Californias. He, also, was 
in command of a Manila galleon, the San Agustin, sailing 
from that port on the sth of July, 1595, and making his 
landfall above 41° on November 4. Taking soundings 
during the day and running out to sea at night, they passed 
Cape Mendocino on the 5th; and that day and night they 
were in the throes of a storm. Heading the San Agustin 
in shore, a bay was sighted, tucked away behind a point of 
land. Rodriguez made for that, and there, on the 6th, 
brought his vessel to anchor, naming it La Bahia de San 
Francisco. They remained there until the 8th of Decem- 
ber, and penetrated the country for some three or four 
leagues. They found the Indians friendly; many deer were 
seen, and partridges which could scarcely have been the 
“conies’”’ seen by the Drake expedition during their sojourn 


24 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


at the same place, notwithstanding a suggestion to that 
effect coming from a very distinguished source. 

While there, an open sailboat, the San Buenaventura, was 
built with which to explore small coves and bays, streams 
and rivers; and this turned out their salvation, for, on 
November the 30th, the San Agustin was driven on shore 
and wrecked. Two men met their deaths; and most of the 
cargo and all the provisions were lost. Seventy men had 
to be fed, and twice Rodriguez journeyed inland to obtain 
supplies from the Indians, mostly bitter acorns but which, 
nevertheless, kept them from starving. 

Men and such things as had been saved were crowded 
in to the limit; and the sailboat headed southward, passing, 
from tip to tip, the entrance to the great harbor lying 
undiscovered to the east of them, passing the Farallones, 
and on, down the coast. On December 10, they were at 
Monterey, which is written of as ‘““The Bay of San Pedro.” 

The Channel Indians, “The Chinamen of California” 
(so called, later, because they were such keen traders), 
drove some pretty hard bargains with the half-starved sea- 
men, satins and silks going to them by the bolt in exchange 
for the miserable food substitutes they furnished in return. 
A steady diet of acorns, with an occasional fish, was not 
very invigorating. All were skin and bones, yet surveys 
and explorations were continued. By barter, a seal was 
secured from the Island Indians at Santa Catalina, and 
some fish were caught. To such extremities were they 
reduced, they were thrilled at one place over wild onions 
and prickly pears; and at another, their joy was pathetic 
when an enormous dead fish, ‘‘with two mortal wounds,” 
was discovered wedged in between the rocks. The fish was 
so large that the seventy men lived on it for a week, and 
so precious that thirty men were left “‘to roast . . . and 
guard it’”’ while the rest went in search of fresh water, which 
was discovered in a mountain stream tumbling down over 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 25 


the rocks into the sea. A supply was taken on board; and, 
on December 22, the voyage was continued. 

There was no one well enough to assist Rodriguez in 
his surveys, and some were at the point of death; so he 
directed the San Buenaventura toward Navidad, arriving 
there on January 7, 1596, and most of the men disem- 
barked. The San Buenaventura was taken by Juan de 
Morgana to Acapulco, which port was reached on Jan- 
uary 31. 

Rodriguez Cermenho went to the capital and made his 
report, dated April 24, 1596. ‘The matter of the wreck 
of the San Agustin and the loss of the cargo were gone 
into, and proceedings instituted to place the responsibility. 
The officers were inclined to blame one another, and the 
testimony was very conflicting. 

But, in a letter dated April 19, the viceroy says: “‘ “To 
me there seems to be convincing proof, resting on clear 
inference, that some of the principal bays, where with 
greater reason it might be expected harbors would be found, 
they crossed from point to point and by night, while others 
they entered but a little way. For all this a strong incentive 
must have existed, because of the hunger and illness they 
say they experienced, which would cause them to hasten on 
their voyage. ‘Thus, I take it, as to this exploration the 
intention of Your Majesty has not been carried into effect’ ” 
(Chapman). 

Rodriguez Cermenho, whose own money had gone into 
the venture, seemingly was not given credit for having 
accomplished anything; yet his descriptions were clear and 
his reports accurate. 


As to the Vizcaino expedition of 1602-3, sources of 
information are not lacking; for, besides the account written 
by Padre Ascensién, taken from his diary kept during the 
voyage; the information gathered by Padre Torquemada: 


26 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


the various official documents; and the letters written by 
Vizcaino; there are two journals: one dealing with the 
juntas—councils—and, the other, a general diary, some- 
times referred to as “‘the Vizcaino Diary.” 

On March 7, 1602, Vizcaino left Mexico City accom- 
panied by many of those who were to sail with him, includ- 
ing, says the Diary (Bolton), “three religious of the Dis- 
calced Order of the Lady of Carmen.” Padre Fray 
Antonio de la Ascensién, already mentioned, was one of 
these three. ‘This branch of the Carmelite order, from 
the derivation of the word ‘‘discalced,” meaning without 
shoes, is known as the ‘‘Barefooted Carmelites.”’ 

When Vizcaino arrived at Acapulco, he found the ves- 
sels which were to be used by the expedition already 
assembled: the San Diego—the capitana, or flagship; a 
frigate, the Tres Reyes; and the San Tomas. Under his 

personal supervision, they were careened, overhauled, and 
~ equipped. 

On Sunday, May 5, the fleet sailed, some two hundred 
persons embarking. ‘“‘As patroness and protector, Our 
Lady of Carmen was carried.’ On Trinity Sunday, June 2, 
they reached the islands of Mazatlan, where the vessels 
came to anchor,—Vizcaino alone going ashore “in order 
to see if there was water, but found none.” 

“Going forward on the voyage, and having passed 
Culiacan a matter of two leagues, the general [ Vizcaino | 
gave orders to cross the entrance of the Californias to the 
Cape of San Lucas.’ Head winds, encountered, necessi- 
tated much tacking back and forth; but, on June 8, their 
temporary objective was reached; and, on the 11th, an- 
chors were cast in the Bay of San Bernabé,—named by the 
expedition. 

Indians gathered on the shore, awaiting the landing of 
the Spaniards, who, meeting their friendly demonstrations 
with kindness, at once established cordial relations; accept- 
ing food and other things, and bringing, in return, “tiger 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 27 


9 


and deer skins,” the Indians retiring, that night, to their 
rancherias, left their visitors in full possession. 

‘Orders were given to make ready the net for catching 
fish, but it was not necessary, for God granted that there 
should be cast upon the beach as many sardines as all could 
eat, with many left over.” 

‘Tt being cold, the men asked the general that the supply 
of clothing which was brought be distributed, which was 
thereupon done; and he also ordered an edict proclaimed 
to the effect that no one should gamble or sell them, under 
pain of death; likewise that no one should harm any Indian, 
or molest him, or take anything from him by force.” 

A supply of fresh water having been taken on board, on 
May 19, “the moon being in conjunction,” they set sail. 
Forced back by northwest winds, they were several times 
obliged to seek shelter in the port they had just left; but, 
at last, on July 5, they were able to continue their voyage. 

Ships, at that time, were not provided with water tanks 
of any kind. Water was carried in whatever would hold 
it and wherever it could be put—even in the rigging. On 
this expedition, as there was little good water near the 
coast, the search for it consuming much time, the supply 
was replenished with great difficulty; after sickness laid 
hold of the men, there was much suffering for the want 
of it on all three vessels; and, of this, at one place, the 
record reads: “. . . we steered out to sea, continuing our 
voyage with great thirst... .” At another: “Because of 
our great need of water, and because to go forward with- 
out finding it would be very rash and to risk our dying 
of thirst, the general directed Ensign Martin [Aguilar] 
to >. follow the coast . . . to another inlet . . . charg- 
ing him to put forth his utmost endeavors.” Water was 
found, and men were ordered ashore who ‘“‘carried pickaxes 
and dug wells, putting in a quarter pipe. The water that 
ran into it was salty, and that which overflowed it fresh, 
which was considered a miracle wrought by God.” 


28 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


In the same harbor discovered by Cabrillo, and named 
by him San Miguel, Vizcaino brought his little fleet to 
anchor on November 10, renaming it San Diego in honor 
both of his flagship and of San Diego de Alcala—that 
saint’s day being November 12. 

Indians came about, armed with bows and arrows, but 
were not hostile, neither were they timid. They reported, 
just as the Indians had to Cabrillo so many years before, 
that white men were to be found in the interior. 

A hut was built on shore, ‘‘and mass was said in celebra- 
tion of the feast of Senor San Diego.” Exploring parties 
were sent out. That sent to the promontory, Point Loma, 
beheld, like a map before them, the beautiful harbor, and, 
on the other side, False Bay. This port, the Diary 
declares, ‘“‘must be the best to be found in all the 
South Sea.” 

A council was held and it was decided to “scour the 
ships, giving them a good cleaning, which they greatly 
needed.” All hands were put to work and when everything 
was in readiness on Wednesday, the 20th, after having 
spent ten days there, they again set sail. 

After a voyage of eight days, they anchored off an island, 
which Vizcaino named Santa Catalina. Another was 
sighted and named San Clemente. ‘They were Cabrillo’s 
Vitoria and San Salvador. 

On Catalina were many Indians clad in sealskins, a fine- 
looking race with large dwellings and many villages. They 
were expert seal hunters, and had well-built canoes “very 
well joined and calked, each one with eight oars and with 
fourteen or fifteen Indians, who looked like galley-slaves. 
They came alongside without the least fear and came on 
board our ships, . . . guiding us like pilots to the anchor- 
age. The general received them kindly and gave them 
some presents, especially to the boys.” 

Some of the officers went ashore and found much to 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 29 


interest them. They were well received and were regaled 
with “roasted sardines and a small fruit like sweet 
potatoes.” Both men and women were kindly, and the 
women very modest but not at all afraid. There was one 
disturbing element, for they were obliged to confess, after 
lauding them, that the men were great thieves: “for any- 
thing they saw unguarded they took.”’ 

The Spaniards remarked the unusually large size of the 
crows on the island, which were very tame and very numer- 
ous. [hey were treated as though sacred by the Indians, 
who were horrified when one was shot by a soldier. 

On the island was what seems to have been a unique 
temple, as there are no accounts of anything similar. It 
was large and circular, ornamented with feathers of various 
colors from birds which were evidently used as sacrifices. 
There was a figure within, which represented some god, 
or, from its appearance, the Devil himself, ‘ta demon, hay- 
ing two horns, no head, a dog at its feet,” flanked on either 
side by the sun and the moon. 

These Indians and those of the other Santa Barbara 
Channel Islands, and also, but not so markedly, those of 
the mainland directly opposite, were so far superior in 
appearance to the other aborigines—of better physique, 
taller, not so dark—as to suggest a different origin, a finer 
race. They were more intelligent and, in many ways, more 
advanced. They were traders, these Islanders, and a trade 
had developed back and forth across the channel, especially 
in the edible roots called ‘“‘gicamas,”’ which grew in abun- 
dance on Santa Catalina. 

On Sunday, December 1, the little fleet was again on its 
way. Vizcaino seems not to have been informed of the 
expedition under Cabrillo which had preceded him, for he 
makes no reference either to confirm or disprove statements 
in Cabrillo’s log; but, as he passes up the coast, renames 
each island, each cape, each bay—as though noted for the 


30 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


first time—and carefully investigates and records every- 
thing in the ship’s journal. 

Besides general exploration, the expedition had several 
purposes in view, primarily to discover a suitable harbor 
of refuge on the northwestern coast of the Californias, a 
refitting station for the galleons after their long transpacific 
voyage. A careful search was also to be made for an inter- 
oceanic strait, no really systematic search having been made 
for the Strait of Anian since the claim set up by the Portu- 
guese, Lorenzo Fernao de Maldonado, that he, in 1588, 
had sailed through a northwest passage—long before said 
to have been discovered by Gaspar Cortereal—entering the 
strait at the Atlantic side at latitude 60° and reaching the 
Pacific at latitude 75°, and, moreover, meeting a Dutch ship 
while en route near the western end, and finding the strait 
easily navigable throughout. 

This expedition under Vizcaino was called by him his 
“second voyage to California’; but the first expedition, 
which he had also commanded as captain general, did not 
reach Alta California. 

Proceeding between islands, sighted on the 2d, and 
the mainland, Indians came about the ships, “rowing so 
swiftly that they seemed to fly.” The Spaniards were 
amazed at the perfection of their canoes, and one is 
described as ‘‘so well constructed and built that since Noah’s 
Ark a finer and lighter vessel with timbers better made 
has not been seen.”’ Of the occupants, we read: ‘‘Four 
men rowed, with an old man in the centre [singing] .. . 
the others responding to him. . . . This Indian was so 
intelligent that he appeared to be not a barbarian but a 
person of great understanding.” Evidently an envoy, he 
urgently invited the Spaniards ashore and, as an extra 
inducement, offered to furnish them ten wives apiece. 
Although this was the cause of much merriment, the fleet 
sailed on. 

The next morning found them hemmed in beeen 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 31 


islands, strung along one behind another, and the mainland; 
and with navigators anxious and puzzled. 

December 4 being the fiesta of Santa Barbara, Vizcaino 
named the channel La Canal de Santa Barbara. 

Tacking back and forth, they were struck by a north- 
wester and high seas, and lost one another, but, later, with 
better weather, came together again. Punta de la Con- 
cepcion (Cabrillo’s Cabo de Galera) was doubled and 
named, and, although the land was enveloped in fog, a 
mountain range was seen and named La Sierra de Santa 
Lucta. 

Now and again, dates differ in the different accounts and 
happenings do not follow in the same sequence. According 
to the Diary—yjust here a bit ambiguous—on the afternoon 
after Santa Lucia’s day, the 13th (therefore, on the 14th), 
at sunset, latitude ‘‘37° full’ was reached. A large bay 
was ordered explored, and, reports being favorable, it was 
decided to put in. 

On December 16, 1602, the harbor, which was named 
El Puerto de Monte Rey—in honor of the viceroy, Don 
Gaspar de Zuniga y Acevedo, Conde de Monte Rey,—was 
entered and anchors cast. 

There was fresh water near the shore and a great oak, 
under which an enramada—arbor—where mass could be 
celebrated, was erected. In the Diary, which we follow, 
the scrivener says: ‘“The general, commissary, admiral, cap- 
tains, ensign, and the rest of the men landed at once; and 
mass having been said and the day having cleared, there 
having been much fog, we found ourselves to be in the best 
port that could be desired, for besides being sheltered from 
all the winds, it has many pines for masts and yards, and 
live oaks and white oaks, and water in great quantity, all 
near the shore. The land is fertile, with a climate and 
soil like those of Castile; there is much wild game, such 
as harts, like young bulls, deer, buffalo, very large bears, 
rabbits, hares, and many other animals and many game 


32 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


birds, . . . and many other kinds . . . which I will not 
mention lest it be wearisome.” 


Vizcaino was now confronted with a difficult and deplor- 
able state of affairs: not only were provisions running low 
but the situation as regards illness had become alarming. 
Immediately after religious service, a council was called. It 
was then determined that the sick were to be returned to 
Acapulco, and reports sent. The San Tomas was detailed, 
and on the 29th, sailed. Very great suffering was experi- 
enced and many died, among these being Fray Tomas, one 
of the two Carmelite friars who were on board. 

After the San Tomas had been despatched, preparations 
were begun for continuing the voyage to Cape Mendocino. 
To quote again: “The men worked under great difficulties 
in taking on wood and water because of the extreme cold, 
which was so intense that Wednesday, New Year’s Day 
of 1603, dawned with all the mountains covered with snow 

. and that the hole from which we were taking water 
was frozen over more than a palm in thickness, and the 
bottles, which had been left full over night, were all frozen 
So urgent was our situation that necessity com- 
naliea us all to act with energy, especially the general, who 
aided in carrying the bottles and in the other tasks, . . . so 
that by Friday night, the 3d of the said month, we were all 
ready.” 

While the vessels were in port, various little journeys 
inland had been made, and, in order to verify reports 
brought back, on this same day (the 3d), Vizcaino himself 
led an exploring party. ‘‘He proceeded some three leagues 
when he discovered another good port, into which entered 
a copious river descending from some high, snow-covered 
mountains [the Rio Carmelo, named in honor of the Car- 
melite friars with the expedition]... .” Elks were 
seen, whose horns measured three varas across and with 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 33 


wool which dragged on the ground. “An effort was made 
to kill some of them but they did not wait long enough. 
No people were found because, on account of the great 
cold, they were living in the interior” (ibid.). 

Says the Diary: “The general and all the men having 
reached the flagship, at nightfall we raised all but one 
anchor, and at midnight, aided by the land breeze, we set 
sail.” 

The San Diego and the Tres Reyes now proceeded on 
their way to more northern latitudes. On the 5th, accord- 
ing to the Diary, Vizcaino—at the suggestion of Francisco 
de Bolanos, his chief navigator, who had held the same 
position on the San Agustin—turned, the capitana about, 
and came to anchor outside Cermenho’s Bahia de San 
Francisco, intending to go ashore on the following day. 
An offshore wind at daybreak forcing the San Diego to 
put to sea, no landing was made, and the voyage up the 
coast was resumed; but, because of mistaken signals, the 
consort, the Tres Reyes, could not be found. Adverse 
winds were encountered and little progress was made; but 
on January 12, the San Diego was in latitude 40°, 27’, off 
Cape Mendocino. Then came a furious south wind, with 
fog and rain; and it was ‘‘as dark in the daytime as at 
night.” All on board were prostrated and “there were 
only two sailors who could climb to the maintopsail.” 

On the 13th, a council was held and it was agreed that, 
for them, there was no alternative,—to proceed would be 
to perish; and that the return voyage was to be begun as 
soon as winds and waves permitted; but the gale drifted 
the little vessel farther to the north. On the 17th, she 
was struck by two seas and seemed almost to stand on 
end; sick and well were thrown from their bunks; and, in 
the pitching and tossing, Vizcaino, striking against a box, 
had his ribs broken. On the 2oth, the fiesta of San Sebas- 


tian, they were in 42°, and on the next day, the storm 


34 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


having abated, the San Diego, speeded by a fresh northwest 
wind, began the homeward voyage. 


The consort, the Tres Reyes, after becoming separated 
from the flagship and beating about in the southwest gale, 
was at “latitude 43°,” and the mouth of a great river was 
seen. ‘The commander having no further instructions, and 
as there was much sickness on board, the Tres Reyes was 
also put about, and the run down the coast commenced. 
Both the captain, Martin Aguilar, and the piloto, Antonio 
Flores, died during the voyage, and of the crew only five 
survived to bring the vessel into port. 


Afflictions without mercy were laid upon those on board 
the San Diego. Nearly the whole ship’s company was 
disabled by illness, and at Cerros Island, where they were 
obliged to stop for wood and water, only one anchor, a 
small one that could be spared, was cast, which, should they 
be unable to hoist it, could, by letting go the cable, be left. 
Six men went ashore with Vizcaino, but debilitated as they 
were and hindered, in every possible way, by the Indians, 
“only with the greatest efforts of all could they take on 
twelve quarters of water.”’ 

With great difficulty, at midnight, on February 8, they 
got under way. On the 13th, off Cape San Lucas, a council 
—the last recorded—was held, to determine: whether it 
would be advisable to enter the bay of San Bernabé and 
bring away the longboat, left there on the outward voyage, 
and from there to proceed to La Paz to await succor and 
new orders from the viceroy; or to make all possible speed 
‘‘to the nearest port in New Spain.”’ The longboat seems 
to have been left at San Bernabé, for it was unanimously 
agreed that it was inexpedient to ‘‘put in at the said bay”— 
as it was to proceed to La Paz—‘“because the men were 
so sick and exhausted that if anchor were cast the ship 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 35 


would not be able to leave port.’’ Therefore, ‘‘and as the 
sick were dying of hunger because they could not eat what 
was on board the ship on account of their sore mouths,” 
Vizcaino ordered the San Diego headed across the gulf 
straight for Mazatlan, where, according to the Diary, they 
arrived “‘on the 18th of the said month, in the greatest 
affliction and travail ever experienced by Spaniards . . . 

. [he ship was brought to anchor between the islands nd 
the mainland; and, taking with him six soldiers—all who 
could walk—vVizcaino left the San Diego and set out 
through a mountainous, roadless country to get assistance 
at the pueblo of Mazatlan; but, losing his way, he journeyed 
thirteen leagues inland toward Culiacan; all would have 
perished from hunger or thirst but for the timely appear- 
ance of a pack train. ‘The arriero came to their aid, 
giving them wine, tortillas, and fruit; and, furnishing them 
with riding animals, directed them “to the pueblo of 
Sacarita. .’ ‘There, the alcalde mayor took charge of 
the matter; and “hens, chickens, kids, beef, veal, bread, 
fruit, and vegetables’ were immediately despatched to the 
stricken ship. 


To their great surprise a small fruit found on the islands 
of Mazatlan, eaten freely by the men, although they made 
their mouths bleed profusely, so cleansed them of ulcers 
that, in six days, there was not a single person whose mouth 
was not entirely healed; and, after eighteen days on the 
islands, when they set sail on March 9g, all were ‘‘well 
and were able to assist in handling the ship, and at the 
helm.” 

On March 21, the San Diego came to anchor at 
Acapulco. ‘“‘The men received their pay with great satis- 
faction and the general took them all with him to Mexico 
at his own expense.” And from there they “went to 
Chapultepeque, where his Lordship [the viceroy] was, to 


36 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


kiss his hands.”’ Drawn, in part, and where quoted, from 
the Diary of Vizcaino (Bolton). 


Although forty-odd lives had been lost, orders had been 
faithfully carried out and the expedition highly successful. 
In making his report, Vizcaino solicited the opportunity 
of returning to California with men, supplies, and equip- 
ment for a permanent settlement. 

The viceroy was well satisfied, and honors and rewards 
were in store for Vizcaino, who, although he had not 
always been, was now in great favor with him. For one 
thing, he was to be given command of the next Manila 
galleon, that of 1604, a position that brought with it rich 
returns. 

Unfortunately, the Conde de Monte Rey was succeeded 
in that year, 1603, by the Marqués de Montesclaros,—a 
viceroy with different views. The result was that Vizcaino 
did not receive the appointment, the order being counter- 
manded by: the new viceroy; not only this, later Montes- 
claros dismissed him from the service, saying that he had 
tried to bribe him to give him the command. 

Sebastian Vizcaino went to Spain, but, says Padre 
Venegas, ‘‘ ‘While Viscaino had a heart for striving against 
the tempests and calms of the sea, he had none for strug- 
gling against. those which alternately agitated and lulled 
the elements of the court’”’ (Hittell). 

Yet the king did issue two cédulas, dated August 19, 
1606, providing for an expedition to Monterey, and direct- 
ing the Governor of the Philippines and the Viceroy of 
New Spain to codperate in the matter. Vizcaino was to 
command the galleon of 1607 and on the return voyage, 
as a preliminary to a settlement, was to make a thorough 
survey of Monterey. Further, he was to return there 
with colonists of the best types. The expedition was to 
be well furnished and a substantial sum was to be forth- 
coming. However, Montesclaros found ways, and the 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 37 


entire plan was discarded. Another that had nothing what- 
ever to do with Monterey was substituted, and the money 
that had been appropriated, diverted. In consequence, 
Sebastian Vizcaino was sent in search of two mythical 
islands: Rico de Oro and Rico de Plata, supposed—as the 
names indicate—to be rich in gold and silver. He was, 
also, an emissary to Japan. The islands, being myths, were 
not found, and as an envoy he was not a success. He 
returned to New Spain in 1613. 


Indications are that no higher latitude was reached by 
the Vizcaino expedition, along the northwest coast of the 
Californias, than 42°. Aguilar’s River, sighted by the Tres 
Reyes, must have been an hallucination, although Padre 
Ascension supposed it to be the entrance to the Strait of 
Anian. Little was added to the information obtained by 
Cabrillo. El Puerto de Monte Rey, we are now told, was 
not really discovered by Vizcaino, Cermenho having already 
done so. But the mapping of the entire coast was of the 
greatest importance and this had been done most carefully 
and well, putting the expedition in a class by itself. 

The first map of the northwest coast was the work of 
the cartographer of this expedition, Captain Gerdénimo 
Martin de Palacios, an expert who had been taken along 
expressly for that reason. He, also, was rewarded by the 
Conde de Monte Rey by being given a lucrative position 
in the Manila galleon. But he fared far worse than did 
Vizcaino, for through the machinations of Montesclaros, 
charges were brought against him. He was tried, con- 
demned, and hanged. 

But Juan Manuel Hurtado de Mendoza y Luna, Mar- 
qués de Montesclaros, Viceroy of Mexico, 1603 to 1606, 
is written of as “‘an able and successful ruler.”’ 

The Spanish government now had an excellent idea of 
the whole coast. No use was made of this until one hun- 
dred and sixty-six years later, except as an assistance to 


38 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


the Manila galleons; but the plan for El] Puerto de Monte 
Rey as a refitting station for them was abandoned. 

Beginning in 1542 with the discovery of the harbor of 
San Miguel, and ending with the return of the Vizcaino 
expedition in 1603, there are five sources of information 
available: Cabrillo, Drake, Gali, Cermenho, and Vizcaino. 
Nothing was added to that. furnished by these five, and just 
that much and no more was known of either coast or 
interior in the year 1769, as had been known in 1603. 
This period is sometimes referred to as “the hiatus in the 
history of California.” 


IV 


A good outline of the coast of the Californias had been 
in the possession of the Spanish government since 1603, the 
result of the mapping done by the Vizcaino expedition— 
a great advance from uncharted waters and no knowledge 
of the trend of the northwest coast. But facilities in 
equipping expeditions had not measurably improved since 
that time, and when the difficulties are remembered which 
beset the two despatched from New Spain—those under 
Cabrillo and Vizcaino—and when the ravages of disease 
and the death toll are borne in mind, it is not a matter 
for astonishment that others had not been sent out. 

An inland route from Mexico to Alta California seemed 
to be the sine qua non for any permanent settlement, not 
only for the sorely needed refitting station for the Manila 
galleons, but, also, for any presidios and missions which 
might have to be established and maintained in conjunc- 
tion—in short, for the regular second phase of Spanish 
conquest, in which spiritual and military occupation followed 
side by side. 


In 1769, a terra incognita still lay between the Colorado 
River and the northwest coast, even in the immediate 
vicinity of which conditions were very superficially known, 
the only information having come from conversations with 
the Indians, prior to 1603, carried on by signs and deduc- 
tions drawn therefrom—always untrustworthy and often 
far from the truth—and from a few excursions a short dis- 
tance inland. 

But, while nothing at all had been done toward either 
an overland route or a settlement, during this interim, 


[39 ] 


40 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


innumerable memorials to the Spanish government, directly 
or indirectly concerning both, had been presented. They 
were all essentially of the same import, except as to ulterior 
motives—and, usually, there were ulterior motives. Ordi- 
narily, the necessity for breaking a way overland across the 
Gila and Colorado rivers was the subject, and foreign 
menace was stressed: danger from the French on the north- 
east, who might, by taking advantage of the “western 
branch of the Colorado,” named by Vizcaino El Rio de 
Carmelo, quietly establish themselves on the northwest 
coast; danger from the English and their probable arrival 
in Pacific waters through the Strait of Anian; and from 
the Russians and their possible descent upon Spanish terri- 
tory from across that strait. Communications from the 
padres dwelt, of course, upon the necessity for missions for 
the salvation of the souls of the heathen. 

In Spanish conquest in the New World, missions and 
missionaries were a tremendous help in the reduction of 
the savages and were used to the utmost limit, but as a 
means toward another end, for the salvation of the souls 
of the heathen was very secondary and in this connection 
nothing at all per se; and it seems to be borne out by 
fact that ‘“The kings, indeed, desired the conversion of 
the Indians to Christianity, and frequently declared this 
to be the chief aim of the conquest; nevertheless, the object 
for which alone expenses were incurred was political” 
(Engelhardt). 

The necessity for the Spanish government to be on the 
qui vive against foreign encroachment grew more and more 
insistent, and in the New World—evidenced by the con- 
tinually arriving petitions urging the government to imme- 
diate action—great apprehension was felt. 

Of these communications to government and king, space 
permits gleanings from only one of a group of four memo- 
rials prepared by Pedro de Labaquera; and from a book, 
defined by Chapman as “One of the most important docu- 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 41 


ments in the history of northwestward advance,” based 
upon material collected by two of the Jesuit fathers: Sigis- 
mundo Taraval, who had been instructed to write a history 
of the Baja California missions (that he did so, in twelve 
volumes of manuscripts seen at Guadalajara, has been amply 
testified to), and Miguel Venegas, who, drawing upon 
Taraval’s material and using his own, reduced it to manu- 
script, in which, according to Hittell, it was “‘set forth in 
a very able, eloquent and perspicuous manner.’ Some years 
later, this manuscript was taken to Spain, where it was 
critically examined, reworked, and new material added to 
it from other sources by ‘Father Andres Marcos Burriel; 
and afterwards in 1757, . . . was published . . . under 
the title of ‘Noticia De La California y De Su Conquista 
Temporal y Espiritual Hasta El Tiempo Presente’”’ 
(Hittell). 

In a letter to the Jesuit procurador general de Indias, 
Pedro Altamirano, Burriel asks that his name be withheld, 
as it was in great part the work of Venegas and he ques- 
tioned the propriety of its publication under his name (and, 
as a matter of fact, it was published anonymously ), adding: 
“Aside from that, affairs of considerable delicacy are 
touched upon, and it is well that I, an employe of the king 
[he was royal archivist at Toledo], do not appear, while 
we do not know how they will be received.’ Many of 
these cosas bastante delicadas were stricken out in course 
of various official readings before publication; for example, 
remarks which seemed in any way to reflect upon the goy- 
ernment for its delays or failures to execute royal decrees 
were expunged, to the bitter regret of Father Burriel” 
(Chapman). It was translated into English, Dutch, 
French, and German. 

In the preface of the English translation, the editor 
argues “‘ ‘that the discovery of a northwest passage, is far 
less problematical there, in the opinion of those, who, from 
their situation, are the ablest judges, than it is here, and 


42 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


that the dread of seeing the English form an establishment 

. is held by those who have the best means of knowing, 
to be a very probable thing. .. . that while the Spaniards 
have the hard task imposed on them, of settling, improving, 
and fortifying the very wildest, and worst parts of this 
country; the English, if they should ever think of making 
any attempt, may seat themselves in a pleasant climate, 
fruitful soil, and in regions well peopled, from whence they 
may, with certainty, command the most valuable branches 
of commerce that have been hitherto discovered’ ”’ (Chap- 
man). ‘The trend of thought in England is evident, and it 
is blazoned forth that Burriel’s fears were far from ground- 
less. There was, indeed, intense feeling and acute antag- 


onism between the two countries. Spain had cause enough * 


to dread the English, with a dread that was cumulative, 
being constantly confronted by England to her disadvantage. 


According to Chapman: “The book is in a sense a 
defence of the Jesuits, and a plea for the extension of their 
missionary field. .. . Competition . . . had to be met, 


and Jesuit mission work, just then much criticised, to be 
defended.” Burriel strongly urged that missions be estab- 
lished “‘to the farthest known coasts of the Californias, that 
is, to San Diego, Monterey, and Aguilar’s River in 43°.” 
And in a letter to Altamirano, he stated that his object in 
part of the book was “ ‘to justify the expenses for the 
maintenance of California, which, wretched land that it is 
[t.e. the peninsula], are well worth while.’”’ The Jesuits 
had insisted upon civil and military domination as well as 
religious in Baja California. ‘Burriel hoped to accom- 
plish his aims by extending Jesuit rule; it is unlikely that 
he contemplated any such radical departura from Jesuit 
policy as would have been involved in establishing presidios 
and settlements under secular authority.” 

But the Jesuits were not destined to carry the faith “‘to 
the farthest . . . coasts of the Californias . . . to San 
Diego, Monterey,” or to any part of Alta California, for 


EE 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 43 


the most important event of the eighteenth century, in 
Mexico, was the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767, under 
orders from Carlos III. Except those at the far distant 
missions, who were taken in charge later, arrests were begun 
and as many made as possible on the night of June 26, the 
rest following quickly in their wake. All their belongings 
were confiscated and they themselves sent on their way to 
Vera Cruz, the embarcadero, for deportation. On that 
long journey, much unnecessary suffering fell to their lot 
and many died. 

Whatever their order may have been guilty of elsewhere, 
the Jesuits in Mexico did valiant work among the natives 
and, along educational lines, much also for the whites. 

“From a small beginning under Ignatius Loyola, their 
founder, in 1539, they had rapidly grown into an immense 
power . . . distributed throughout almost every region 
of the earth; bound by the strictest oaths, . . . recogniz- 
ing no superior allegiance except to the pope, they had. . . 
become truly formidable. 

“The movement [against them] commenced in Portugal, 
where it was supposed that they had not only instigated 
rebellion in the provinces but had also been privy to a con- 
spiracy to assassinate the king”’ (Hittell) ; finally, the gov- 
ernment issued a royal edict ‘‘declaring the Jesuits traitors; 
suppressing the order throughout the Portuguese domin- 
ions, and confiscating all its property” (ibid.). 

A little later, expulsion was brought about in France 
through the united efforts of their bitter enemy, the Duc 
de Choiseul, the prime minister, and of Madame de Pom- 
padour, the mistress of Louis XV, whose dismissal 
they demanded. ‘The Jesuit order was suppressed there in 
1764. ‘Three years later, it was forcibly expelled from all 
the dominions of Spain. 

The execution of the order in Baja California was placed 
in the hands of Captain of Dragoons Don Gaspar de Por- 
tola, a Catalan of noble birth, born at Balaguer, Spain, at 


44 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


that time forty-six years old, who had seen service in 
Portugal and Italy, and who was to remain on the Penin- 
sula as civil and military governor. 

On the enforcement of the decree against the Jesuits, 
missions on the Peninsula were put under the control of the 
Franciscan College of San Fernando at Mexico City. Fray 
Guardian José Garcia named nine missionaries to under- 
take the work, and appointed Fray Junipero Serra, of the 
Sierra Gorda Mission, padre presidente. 


Miguel José Serra was born at Petra, Island of Mallorca, 
November 24, 1713. 

He became a novitiate of the Franciscan order at Palma, 
at the age of sixteen, and at that time took the name of 
Junipero, a disciple well loved by St. Francis. 

Not only gifted and studious, but persistent, tireless, 
enthusiastic in his endeavors toward an end—characteristics 
which remained through life—he was able to accomplish 
where another would have failed. He was ordained before 
he was twenty-one, and as a professor of theology, teaching 
and lecturing for some three years before large classes and 
with great success, he had earned and been given the 
doctor’s degree. Of attractive personality, with a rich, 
sonorous voice, an orator, skilled in the use of words, who 
had striven to perfect his technique, when he preached he 
rose to the apex of his powers and carried all before him. 
In the pulpit, he seemed inspired. It is somewhat banal 
to reiterate that ‘‘one of his sermons was said by a severe 
critic, to be worthy of being printed in letters of gold.” 
Originally a beautiful recognition of his compelling elo- 
quence, it has become, from sheer repetition, almost an 
anticlimax in writing of one possessed of the divine spark 
of true greatness. 

During the years that followed, his fame spread and 
many doors of distinction stood wide open for Serra to 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 45 


pass through, but nothing beckoned to him from the other 
side of the portals. The dream of his life’s work, stretch- 
ing out before him, did not mirror him to himself sur- 
rounded by the pomps and vanities of the world. He saw 
himself in the wilds of the New World, bringing to other- 
wise lost souls the life eternal. This became an obsession, 
part of his very soul. 

Francisco Palou and Juan Crespi were friends of his 
youth, and the friendship endured and waxed stronger as 
the years went by, for the names of the three are insepara- 
bly linked in their chosen calling. With the same aims and 
ideals, Serra and Palou together tendered their services 
for any missionary enterprise that might be undertaken 
by their order, and strove unceasingly toward that end. 
But years passed ere permission came to join a party of 
missionaries on the eve of departure for Mexico—when 
Serra was nearly thirty-six years old—and even then only 
because five priests became frightened at the thought of the 
long voyage and Serra and Palou were substituted for two 
of those whose hearts had failed them. 

Arriving at Vera Cruz after a stormy and wearisome 
voyage of ninety-nine days, neither vehicles nor horses were 
found waiting to convey the friars to Mexico City. Eager 
to begin the work to which he hoped to be permitted to 
dedicate the rest of his life—the redemption of the sav- 
ages—now that the opportunity had come, after so many 
years of waiting, Serra did not propose to be delayed in 
any avoidable way; conforming, also, to the austerities of 
his order, one of their vows being never to ride when to 
walk is possible, he decided to press on to his destination 
at once, and to make the long journey of about one hundred 
Spanish leagues on foot. On this strenuous walk he injured 
his leg, which became infected, the affliction recurring from 
time to time during his whole life and being the cause of 
much suffering and great inconvenience; but the pain which 
came with it he took as a Heaven-sent discipline and for 


46 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


his good, a part of his earthly cross. Except on a few rare 
occasions when the agony was too great for even his 
stoicism and when, after fasting and prayer, he reluctantly 
sought human aid, he put aside bodily ailments. During 
that long walk, he beheld visions and miracles came to pass. 
Elated with hope, he reached the College of San Fer- 
nando, but his dream, which had seemed about to material- 
ize, became a will-o’-the-wisp, as elusive and far away as 
when he was still in Spain, for, although he and Palou were, 
after a time, put in charge of the Sierra Gorda missions 
which became the model missions of all New Spain, it 
was more than seventeen years after his arrival in Mexico, 
and when he was in his fifty-fourth year, that he was 
appointed padre presidente of the Peninsula missions. 


The little band from the College of San Fernando set 
out on July 14, arriving at Tepic on August 21, welcomed 
by the Franciscans at Jalisco, who had a hospicio at that 
place. ‘Finding the newly appointed governor of Cali- 
fornia, Gaspar de Portola, with fifty men ready to sail,” two 
of the padres, Palou and Gaston, at the request of Serra, 
set sail with him. But they were not to cross the gulf to 
the scenes of their future labors at that time, for “the ship 
was driven back to Matanchel on September sth. Fr. Palou 
relates that when the tempest was at its height, and all ex- 
pected to perish, Fr. Gaston cast some moss from the fa- 
mous Cross of Tepic upon the raging billows, and Fr. Palou 
vowed to offer up a High Mass if they were saved, where- 
upon the storm instantly subsided. The vow was fervently 
fulfilled as soon as the hospice was reached, the entire crew 
of the ship assisting at the ceremonies” (Engelhardt). 

The Franciscans detailed to take over the work in Baja 
California were detained on the mainland until the follow- 
ing spring. Governor Portola, however, arrived at Cape 
San Lucas in October, and proceeded to execute his unpleas- 
ant commission. 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA AT 


The Jesuit order had not been anxious to undertake the 
work in Baja California in the first place, but, after so 
many years there, the God-forsaken country had become 
dear to some of them who had come to look upon the arid 
and forbidding peninsula as their own land, and their dis- 
tress at their forcible ejection was acute; but the kindly 
courtesy of Don Gaspar de Portola, and consideration in 
all things possible, did much to relieve the situation. 

One of them—Father Jakob Baegert—who had at last 
reached his home after many trying experiences, wrote 
in refutation of misstatements in translations of the 
Venegas-Burriel Noticia de la California of what so filled 
his heart. 

The story of their departure drawn by Hittell from 
Baegert’s Nachrichten is, in part and in substance, as fol- 
lows: The fifteen Jesuit missionaries and one lay brother 
gathered at Loreto, bringing with them, in accordance with 
instructions, complete inventories of all their possessions. 
“They were there received by Portola, as was the Spanish 
custom of the day, with courteous embraces. On February 
3, 1768, the collected fathers . . . assembled in the church 
and celebrated their last high mass in the country. The 
image of Our Lady of Loreto, the patroness of the con- 
quest, was draped in mourning. .. . From the church, the 
fathers, after being again embraced and bidden adieu by 
the new governor, marched down to the beach . . .” and 
went on board the ship, the Indians wailing a farewell. 

“By this time the sun had sunk; the twilight changed 
into dusk; the sails were run up in the dark; they filled and 
swelled with the winds of the night; and before morning 

. they were far distant on their way. They had left 
California forever.” 


Meanwhile, the Franciscans, now sixteen in number, wait- 
ing to take up the work laid down by the expelled Jesuits, 
had occupied themselves conducting missions in the vicinity 


48 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


of Tepic. When at last they were permitted to set sail, 
on March 14, 1768, from San Blas, it was by the same 
boat, the Concepcion, which had brought over the unhappy 
Jesuit fathers. They reached Loreto, the principal mis- 
sion, on April 1, where they gave thanks for their safe 
arrival in the church of Nuestra Senora de Loreto—Our 
Lady of Loreto—the patroness of the Peninsula. 


The Franciscan order, authorized by the pope in 
1210 and formally ratified in 1223, was founded by 
Giovanni. Francesco Bernardone,—St. Francis, ‘Ihe 
Seraphic Saint,’—born in Assisi, Italy, in 1182, and 
canonized in 1228, two years after his death, by Pope 
Gregory IV. 

The order flourished and established itself in many 
places. Shortly after the discovery of America, mission- 
ary work among the aborigines was begun by Franciscans. 
Fray Juan Pérez de Marchena accompanied Columbus 
on his second voyage, and landing on the island of His- 
paniola, celebrated mass in a little chapel built of boughs— 
the first Christian service in the New World—on December 
$1. 1403: 

On this island of Hispaniola—or, as he named it, 
Espanola,—Columbus, himself a member of the Third 
Order of St. Francis, had a monastery of stone erected for 
Franciscan friars, of which Fray Juan Pérez was the first 
guardian. 

A group of friars arriving in 1502 “brought along the 
first church bells” (Engelhardt) ; and Franciscans were the 
first missionaries on the mainland as they had been on the 
islands. 

The Franciscan order was the first of the so-called 
‘“‘mendicant orders” that came into being in Europe in the 
middle ages as a result of certain integral conditions of 
feudalism and a direct reaction against them. The whole 
social system revolved around the great landlords—away 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 49 


from the towns—and, as bishops and abbots were them- 
selves feudal barons, the city populations were left, prac- 
tically without spiritual guidance, in a state of religious 
deprivation and moral poverty. The Franciscans, the first 
to hear this call and answer it, laid special stress not only 
upon spreading the faith, but upon ministering to the body 
as well as to the soul. Thus, when they came to the cities, 
going among the people, adapting themselves to the ways 
of those about them, caring for the sick and needy, reclaim- 
ing the outcast, and bringing with them at the same time 
a religion full of the mysticism of the humanity of Christ— 
living His life, so far as in them lay—they met a crying 
need. 

Their vows compelled the utmost poverty and the fewest 
possible belongings. No ownership in land or funded 
property was permitted, nor any fixed incomes. As time 
went on, more and more were they obliged to give them- 
selves to their ministrations and less and less were they 
able to support themselves. Furthermore, to their detri- 
ment, other mendicant orders—the original cause forgotten 
and the primary object lost sight of—sprang up so rapidly 
and became so numerous—to their own hindrance and 
embarrassment, also—that begging began to play a greater 
part than had ever been contemplated by St. Francis, until 
the enthusiasm for founding them was checked by a papal 
decree. 

Franciscan ideals became increasingly difficult to main- 
tain, and, eventually, the order split into two divisions: the 
Observants, who adhere strictly to the rules originally 
formulated, in all their severity, and the Conventuals, who 
follow a less rigorous régime; the general of the Observants 
being the minister general of the entire order. The 
Franciscans in California were Observants. 

There was ever a rivalry between the Dominicans— 
Black Friars—or Fratri Predicatori, as they styled them- 
selves, and the Franciscans—Barefoot, Gray Friars, or 


50 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


Minorites, the last the modest name bestowed upon them 
by St. Francis himself,—both being offshoots from the 
Augustinians. 


The effort to break the temporal power of the priest- 
hood, already begun in Spain, otherwise shown in the drastic 
measures employed toward the Jesuits, is evident in the 
orders received by Governor Portola from the viceroy: 
‘to intrust to the Franciscans . . . only that which per- 
tained to the sagrada y espiritual [sacred and spiritual | 
of the missions, and on April 9 he had reported having 
placed in the missions, as administradores, soldiers ‘that 
were very loyal’”’ (Richman, note). 

The impression was very general that reports made by 
the Jesuits as to the poverty of the Peninsula were false; 
that, on the contrary, the mountains were enormously rich 
in minerals, and that, in reality, they had accumulated great 
wealth. Don Gaspar de Portola and his men believed this, 
as did every one else; but they were soon undeceived, and 
the poverty of both missions and mines demonstrated 
beyond the possibility of doubt. 

In their lengthy marches, the aridity, lack of water, and 
other disadvantages of the country became only too insist- 
ently manifest for their comfort. 

In a report to the viceroy, December 28, 1767, Governor 
Portola describes the Peninsula as ‘‘sand sown with thorns 
and thistles.” 


Of the group of four interesting memorials to the king 
in 1760-61, previously referred to, one is especially so, 
presenting as it does many of the obstacles lying in the 
way of the advance overland into Alta California. The 
writer of all four, Pedro de Labaquera, then in Spain, who 
had been for twelve years lieutenant captain general in 
Neuva Galicia, describes the dangers and needs from that 
viewpoint, and as one who knows intimately and at first- 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 51 


hand much whereof he writes, “showing a keen knowledge 
of frontier conditions, in accounting for the failure to con- 
quer the Apaches. The Apaches, when attacked, habitually 
retired to the mountains which were inaccessible to the 
presidial troops. ‘This was due not merely to the fact that 
the latter were cavalrymen, but to the nature of the soldiers 
themselves. Most of them were mulattoes of very low 
character, without ambition, and unconquerably unwilling 
to travel on foot, as was necessary in a mountain attack. 
Moreover, their weapons carried so short a distance that 
the Apaches were wont to get just out of range and make 
open jest of the Spaniards... . Labaquera recommended 
that two hundred mountain fusileers of Spanish blood be 
recruited in Spain” especially for this Indian warfare. 

In one of the documents, he referred to the episode of 
las bolas de plata—the balls of silver—and asked per- 
mission to explore the country in the neighborhood of that 
astonishing discovery; and, also, that a presidio be estab- 
lished there, and that he be put in command, showing in a 
businesslike way how very material benefits would accrue to 
the king in consequence. (Drawn, and where quoted, from 
Chapman. ) 

The story of las bolas, or las planchas de plata, is, briefly, 
as follows: ‘In 1736 a most remarkable silver mine was 
discovered at or near a place called Arizonac . . . just 
south of the border of the present-day state of Arizona. 

. the precious metal was found in balls or nuggets of 
almost pure silver. These were on or near the surface, 
and were of immense size, some of them weighing a ton or 
more.” ‘The largest bola authentically reported weighed 
about thirty-five hundred pounds, but many of five hundred 
pounds were found. Captain Juan Bautista de Anza, of 
the Presidio of Fronteras, attempted to safeguard the find 
for the crown, contending that the deposit was not a mine 
in the ordinary sense but was treasure, and that, even if not 
hidden treasure, it was a criadero—an accumulating place— 


52 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


for silver, ‘‘and therefore belonged to the national treas- 
ury.”’ But in this he was not upheld by the viceroy, and, 
although he endeavored to prevent the despoiling of the 
treasure, by the time the royal decree came, sustaining him, 
there was little left. In an ordinary mine, the king’s rights 
amounted to a fifth, “but if a hidden treasure, the king was 
entitled to all.”” But Anza himself stated that he had great 
difficulty in saving any of it for the king. (Drawn, and 
where quoted, from Chapman.) It seems that, later, the 
bolas were found to have been a criadero. 

That same sturdy soldier sent a petition to the king, to 
be allowed to be the first to break a way to the northwest 
coast across the Gila and Colorado rivers. [he man who 
could—who had the ability necessary to carry through the 
project—was of the first importance and not easily found, 
and for a time it seemed probable that he would receive 
the appointment, but indications did not result in orders, 
and, in 1739, Anza was killed in a battle with the Apaches. 


So far as establishing settlements on the northwest coast 
of the Californias, difficulties by sea in 1769 were prac- 
tically the same as in 1542 and 1602; their maintenance 
after establishment would still be almost impossible, with 
no nearer base of supplies than San Blas on the Mexican 
coast—Baja California as a base being out of the question, 
having, itself, to depend in great part on the mainland. 

Between Sonora, the base for advance, and the Gila and 
Colorado rivers, the Indian situation, requiring constant 
vigilance, was a formidable barricade; and the much-peti- 
tioned-for overland route, to codperate with that by sea, 
was more effectually blocked than it had'‘been one hundred 
years before. The Apaches and Seris were always on the 
warpath, and, at times, aided and abetted by the usually 
friendly Pimas, joined in risings against the whites. 

Although from time to time royal decrees were issued 
and plans formulated by Spanish officials toward the ends 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 53 


petitioned for, nothing much came of them. But, while 
obstacles and difficulties in the way of northwestern advance 
and the founding of settlements in Alta California were 
many, the one great reason nothing was done was lack of 
money. Just so long as the menace to that frontier did 
not become too pressing, just so long could the occupation 
of that territory be postponed, and money—necessary for 
the equipment of the expedition by sea; for the establish- 
ment of a base at the junction of the Gila and Colorado 
rivers; for the opening of an inland route into Alta Cali- 
fornia; and for the establishing and maintaining of 
presidios and missions—could be diverted from the colonies 
to uses nearer home. For, most of the time, Spain was at 
war, the treasury in a constant state of depletion and the 
greatest possible revenue which could be drawn from her 
colonies must be drawn from them. But as the years went 
by the menace increased, and the outcome could be visual- 
ized, slowly but surely approaching. ‘The point was being 
reached where the balance would shift, where dangers and 
necessities on the northwest frontier would outweigh 
obstacles and difficulties so long preventing an advance in 
that direction, and—that point reached—the northwestern 
advance would have to be made, and obstacles and difficul- 
ties would have to be surmounted at any cost, if the Cali- 
fornias, the littoral of New Spain, were to be held. 

At last, after two hundred and twenty-seven years of 
lethargy, and one hundred and sixty-six years of that time 
of absolute inertia, the crucial time for Spain’s supreme 
effort was in sight. 


V 


After a century of memorials to the king, and oft-made 
plans by the Spanish government to further northwestern 
advance, to establish a refitting station for the Manila gal- 
leons, and to take steps for the defense of the coast of the 
Californias;—plans which were always frustrated in one 
way or another, but principally because there was no 
money available for colonial advancement,—the unexpected 
happened. 


During much of the period of seeming inertia, Spanish 
officials were in reality keenly alive to the situation, and 
foreign encroachment had eventually become a bogy seen 
at every turn. Spain had been confronted with many 
difficulties. The need of a strong army and navy stared 
her in the face at all times, if she hoped to retain her pos- 
sessions in the New World and to hold her own in the wars 
in which she was constantly engaged. 

In the caja real—the royal treasury of Spain—money did 
not seem to accumulate but only to pass through it. The 
policy for the mother country of building up and stabilizing 
her industries, and thus making it possible to extract heavy 
taxes without exhausting the country, was a wise one, but 
one not followed toward her colonies. Nothing was done 
for them nor was anything left them with which to work 
out their own salvation; the limit possible was expected 
and demanded of them; money must flow from the colonies 
into Spain rather than out of Spain into the colonies. When 
Carlos III came to the throne, the results of this 
home policy were very apparent in “an accumulation of 
resources unparalleled since the days of the Moriscos” 


[54] 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 55 


(Richman) ; but, no matter how much money was poured 
into the caja real, there was always the need for more. 

Spain possessed many vessels of war—fifty or more—but 
vessels of war and armies must be supported, and so Don 
José de Galvez was despatched in 1765 to New Spain as 
visitador general—inspector general—with well-nigh abso- 
lute powers, to investigate and reform the administration 
of the government in the different branches, “‘particularly 
in matters pertaining to the royal finances” (Bancroft) ; in 
other words, to devise ways and means to increase the 
royal revenues, and this the visitador did, enormously. 

Strange as it may seem, and, oddly enough, by a single 
turn in events, the necessities of Spain, this lack of money 
which had prevented northwestern advance, and this policy 
of demanding “the pound of flesh, blood and all” from the 
colonies, which had caused the sending of Don José de 
Galvez to New Spain, became indirectly the means by which 
some of the most important of the many things petitioned 
for were brought about. 


José Bernardo de Galvez Gallardo was born January 2, 
1720, near Véelez-Malaga, in the picturesque little village 
of Macharaviaya. The story of the pastoral simplicity and 
poverty of his early life, and his rise step by step, up and 
up, to the seats of the mighty, as told by Priestley, who has 
given special study to the career of this remarkable man, 
reads like a fairy tale. Only most meager excerpts are 
possible here. 

“The Macharaviaya branch of the Galvez family was in 
those days reputed to be one of the oldest and purest of 
Spanish lines. . . . The most distinguished bearer of the 
name, prior to José de Galvez, was Anton de Galvez, 
seventh grandfather of the former, who bore a notable part 
in the wars against the Moors . . . in1492. ... From 
early times they were registered as hijosdalgo, and occu- 
pied official positions fitting their stations in life. Many 


56 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


members of the family . . . became Caballeros de Cala- 
trava, and served their sovereigns in distinguished posts. 
They were known as ‘Old Christians,’ without admixture 
of foreign or heathen blood; they had never engaged in any 
low or mechanical employment, and resided on their own 
estates. 

“Notwithstanding the purity of its lineage, or perhaps 
on account of it, the Macharaviaya family at the time of 
the birth of José was as poor as it was proud and ancient. 

. . The poor farmer having gone to his rest, his young 
sons were obliged to gain their livelihood as shepherd boys, 
for flocks and herds were the mainstay of the community. 
In this humble employment José de Galvez spent his early 
years, with intervals of attendance at the boys’ school in 
the neighboring village of Benaque. 

‘‘When he was eight years old the village priest took 
him as an acolyte. ‘This circumstance brought him, three 
or four years later, under the notice of the bishop of 
Malaga, Diego Gonzalez Toro. .. . The bishop was 
impressed with the possibilities which the boy showed, and 
took him to Malaga to be educated for the priesthood”’ 
(Priestley). 

In 1735, he was awarded a fellowship in the seminary 
of San Sebastian at Malaga, “upon proof of his legitimate 
birth, his purity from taint of Moorish blood, and of the 
fact that he had never engaged in any low or ignoble 
occupation’ (ibid.). 

In 1737, his benefactor died, and shortly after, Galvez 
went to Madrid. He did not become a priest, but studied 
law at the University of Salamanca, and, later, practiced 
his profession at Madrid. His fine knowledge of the 
French language—his mastery of its subtleties, his charm 
of expression and fluency seem to have been at that time 
his greatest asset, for it drew the attention of eminent 
Frenchmen at the court of Spain, to him. It was a most 
useful stepping-stone; and he became legal councilor for 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 57 


the French ambassador, and, afterward, a secretary to 
the first minister of state, the Marqués de Grimaldi. 

‘A more romantic tradition has it that there occurred 
in Madrid in 1747 a notable lawsuit (ruidoso pleito) 
between the state and a foreign business house. Galvez, 
employed as counsel by the foreigners, made such a brilliant 
argument before the court that he won the suit, to the 
astonishment of the most able jurists. His success attracted 
the attention of the King, who invited the young lawyer 
to an interview. Charles asked him how he had had the 
temerity to defend a case against the state, to which Galvez 
is reputed to have replied: ‘Senor, antes que el rey esta 
la ley —‘My lord, the law is greater than the King.’ The 
readiness and fearlessness of the answer is supposed to 
have been the young man’s ‘open sesame’ to distinction. 

“Upon the death of Francisco Armona, who was chosen 
visitor-general of New Spain in 1764, Galvez was appointed 
February 20, 1765, to perform the visitation. Eight days 
later he was made honorary member of the Council of the 
Indies with seniority, in order ‘that he might serve with 
more character in the employment of visitor.’ It was cus- 

tomary to grant to visitadores who went to the New World, 
-some such distinction, in order to hold out prospect of 
employment for them when they should return to Spain. 
While Galvez was still in America he was further rewarded 
by the king for his activities by being made, on December 
28, 1767 a ministro togado of the Council and Chamber 
of the Indies; that is, he was made eligible to sit in the 
chamber of justice, than which no higher distinction in 
the Council could be conceded to him while he was absent 
from the capital, as he obviously could discharge no duties 
of the office while so situated” (ibid.). 

Enormous powers were conferred upon Galvez as 
visitador general; “he was to all intents the highest 
authority in New Spain” (Bancroft). Yet, from the 
moment of his arrival, inimical to the proper execution of 


58 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


his plans was the attitude of the viceroy, Joaquin de 
Montserrat, Marqués de Cruillas, who, largely because of 
this, was recalled and replaced in office, in 1766, by the 
Marqués de Croix, born at Lille, Flanders, with whom the 
visitador was in entire accord. 

Shortly after the arrival of the new viceroy, the Indian 
situation in Sonora and Sinaloa became very serious, 
Apaches, Seris, and Pimas being implicated, and this was 
given careful consideration by the two officials. 

Following a recommendation by the visitador, dated 
January 15, 1768, as to certain changes in the government 
of these provinces, looking toward their betterment (and 
also toward an increase in royal revenues), in which the 
Californias were named—evincing an intention on his part 
to draw them into governmental live issues,—a junta was 
held on January 21, and Galvez was named to head an 
expedition to the frontier provinces. On the 23d, the 
viceroy’s plan for a new government—a comandancia 
general—for the frontier provinces of Neuva Vizcaya, 
Sinaloa, Sonora, and the Californias, to be forwarded to 
the king, was ready. This was a Galvez plan, signed by 
De Croix, and also, by Galvez as visitador. ‘This plan 
was submitted to Archbishop Lorenzana, who, under date 
of January 27, approved it. In this joint despatch to the 
king, “fundamental in the history of California” (Rich- 
man), in which plans were developed for a new form of 
provincial government, advantage was taken of the excellent 
opportunity to bring to his attention the menace of foreign 
encroachment—explained, iterated, and reiterated in these 
pages—expatiated upon and brought up to date, and, as a 
means of defense and a refuge for the galleons, an expedi- 
tion to the northwest coast was urged, and the occupation 
of Monterey stressed. 


Leaving the capital on April 9, the visitador was over- 
taken by despatches from the viceroy while on his way to 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 59 


the Jalisco coast, on May 5, one day out from Guadalajara. 
Despatches is a convenient word, but the nature of these 
particular despatches is rather material to the story, and 
has been the subject of some conjecture: whether they were 
specific orders for the occupation of Monterey at that time 
—or were not—in order to determine how far Galvez was 
responsible—or Croix, at the suggestion of Galvez. This 
communication is referred to as royal orders, a royal decree, 
a mandate, and, now and then, as a reply to the Joint 
despatch, this last bringing about a discord of dates impos- 
sible to harmonize, until they are summarily brought into 
assonance by the simple statement that it was not—could 
not have been—for whatever the nature of the communica- 
tion received by the viceroy from Spain and the contents 
transmitted to the visitador, both documents bore the same 
date: January 23, 1768. It is unnecessary to underscore 
the obvious! But the joint despatch bore fruit later, in 
approvals from government officials and the king. 

As to the nature of the contents, we find in Bancroft’s 
History of California, 1542-1800: ‘‘Shortly after his 
departure Viceroy Croix received from King Carlos III. 
orders to the effect that in connection with other precau- 
tions against the Russians on the northwest coast, San 
Diego and Monterey should be occupied and fortified. 
How the order was worded, whether peremptory in its 
terms or in the form of a recommendation, does not appear. 
But that under ordinary circumstances it would have been 
obeyed with any degree of promptitude may well be doubted. 

The royal order was clear that San Diego and 
Ricarerey should be occupied . . «The cause ‘of this 
unusual promptness was in die man who undertook to 
carry out the order. ‘The whole matter was by the viceroy 
tMirecasover to) Jose de. Galvez ...,..° 3” 

With further research, it has developed that the com- 
munication from Arriaga, under date of January 23, 1768, 
to Croix—the raison d’étre of the despatches received by 


60 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


Galvez en route—was not an order for the occupation and 
fortification of San Diego and Monterey. ‘This is made 
plain by Dr. Chapman in The Founding of Spanish Cali- 
fornia, who says: “In a letter dated November 31 [sic], 
1767, the Vizconde de la Herreria had written to the 
Marqués de Grimaldi, Spanish minister of state, that the 
Russian empress was not desisting from her attempt to 
establish communications with the Pacific coasts of America, 
and was preparing expeditions. The papers were for- 
warded to Julian de Arriaga, who wrote to Croix, Janu- 
ary 23, 1768, that the Russians were planning to found 
settlements on the North American coast, or had done so 
already, as some believed. He bade Croix order the 
governor of the Californias to exercise vigilance to observe 
these attempts, frustrating them if possible. ‘This letter, 
it will be observed, did not order an expedition to Mon- 
terey, as has usually been stated... . Galvez after- 
ward said that Croix directed him to despatch an expedi- 
tion to Monterey . . . which statement is confirmed by 
Croix?! 


Digging into the history of that period in New Spain, 
it is apparent that José de Galvez was very much the 
deus ex machina starting into motion long stationary goy- 
ernmental machinery appertaining to Alta California. For 
several years he had had the occupation of Monterey in 
mind, a natural sequence to the plan for a comandancia 
general, and, as a preliminary to both, the establishment 
of the port of San Blas. 

While still at Guadalajara and, of course, before receiv- 
ing Croix’s despatches on May 5, Galvez had, it seems, 
referred to his plans for the exploration of the Californias. 

After Galvez had begun to organize the Department of 
San Blas, where he arrived on May 13, a junta was held 
on the 16th to consider the proposed expedition to Alta 
California, and important preliminaries were decided upon. 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 61 


Those taking part were the visitador; Miguel Costansd, 
oficer of engineers; Antonio Farveau Quesada, mathema- 
tician and pilot; Manuel Rivero Cordero, comandante de 
la marina; and Vicente Vila, navigator of the royal navy. 
It was decided that the new brigantines, the San Carlos and 
San Antonio, were to be used, sailing in June or July, from 
San Blas or Cape San Lucas. 

Preparations were to begin at once, collecting the cargoes 
for the two brigantines, then absent on the expedition to 
Guaymas with troops. Many details as to personnel of 
crews and other things were arranged; a land expedition 
despatched from the northern missions of Baja California 
was also determined upon. No one knew better than 
Galvez the impossibility of an advance into Alta California 
from Sonora at that time, for one matter bringing him to 
the coast had been the outfitting of an expedition for the 
relief of Sonora. 

Many changes having been brought about in Baja Cali- 
fornia by the expulsion of the Jesuits, a tour of inspection 
of the Peninsula by the visitador was deemed advisable, 
and Galvez determined to go at that time. 

The Gulf of California—the ‘Sea of Cortés,” as it was 
first called—had had a bad name, by whichever of its 
several appellations it had been designated; but even so, 
this run across from the mainland to the Peninsula turned 
out to be something more of an undertaking than was ever 
expected. The visitador set sail from San Blas, on May 24, 
in the sloop Sinaloa, accompanied by an escort of two other 
vessels, the Concepcion and the Pison; but on the night of 
the 28th, they became separated. On June 14, seventeen 
days later, the Concepcion arrived at Cerralvo Inlet, and 
the announcement was made that the visitador might be 
expected at any moment. Captain Fernando Rivera y 
Moncada, in command of the garrison at Loreto, the 
capital, was duly notified to that effect. 

But Don José did not arrive so immediately, for, in the 


62 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


meantime,—and for some time after,—the Sinaloa was 
alternately the sport of winds and calms. When eight 
days out, she was forced into a bay of La Isla Isabela 
and held there four days. On the 5th of June, becalmed, 
she was rowed to Las Islas Tres Marias, and there, taking 
advantage of the delay, Galvez explored assiduously for 
six days. On the 13th, she was under way, but arrived 
at Mazatlan, where she remained until July 2, when, with 
a wind “fresco y favorable [fresh and favorable]”’ sails 
were again run up and she was headed across the gulf, and, 
with better luck at her heels, reached the Peninsula on the 
5th, the visitador being met upon arrival, with all due cere- 
mony, by Captain Rivera. 

Galvez established headquarters at the hacienda of 
Manuel de Ocio, at the royal mining camp of Santa Ana, 
not far from La Paz, and, while making a thorough inves- 
tigation of conditions in the Peninsula, was arranging to 
carry out the viceroy’s instructions—but in his own way. 


The expedition was to be despatched in four divisions: | 
two by sea, two by land, to start separately, rendezvous at 
San Diego, and then press on to Monterey. Thus a prac- 
tical knowledge of both routes would be gained, and risks 
of failure lessened. | 

The way up the Peninsula for the land forces, in con- 
nection with divisions despatched by sea, could be used in 
the present need, whatever should afterward be determined 
upon as a permanent route between Mexico and Alta Cali- 
fornia. To approach Alta California by way of the Pen- 
insula was plainly an expedient. 

Santa Maria, near the border, was named as the gather- 
ing place of all land forces, animals, and supplies to be 
sent overland; but because of lack of pasturage, Velicata 
was afterward selected. 

There was no one with whom he was obliged to consult; 
there was no danger of pigeonholing his communications 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 63 


and frustrating his plans. He was the supreme power, and 
his plans were soon made, for “he travels fastest who 
travels alone.” 

The name of José de Galvez should never be forgotten 
by a Californian. ‘He is entitled to the first place among 
the pioneers of California though he never set foot in the © 
country” (Bancroft). A man of superb ability, independ- 
ent, brushing aside useless formalities, empowered to act, 
—and, for another reason, because his heart was in it,—he 
was able to accomplish what ordinarily might never have 
gone beyond the first formal procedure. Just a little more 
dillydallying—mandates received had come to nothing— 
and Spain’s opportunity would have become Russia’s. The 
skies were sunny, the soil was fertile, and grain was needed 
in Alaska; furs were in demand and otters were many; and 
gold might have been discovered by the Muscovites. Thus 
the story of Alta California, as we know it, would never 
have been told! 


Galvez found, in Baja California, the very best possible 
human material for his purpose. At the time of his arrival 
in July, 1768, Portola had been on the Peninsula as civil 
and military governor since the previous October; Rivera 
y Moncada, commanding the garrison at Loreto, a much 
longer time and knew the country well; while the Fran- 
ciscans, with Junipero Serra as their padre presidente, had 
been in control of the missions vacated by the Jesuits, for 
about three months. 

The first division was to be under command of Rivera 
y Moncada, while Portola was to head the second. Rivera 
had also been appointed comisario. In August or Septem- 
ber, 1768, he set out on a tour to requisition whatever he 
could for the proposed advance and the founding of the 
new establishments. 

Two missions, in addition to San Diego and Monterey, 
were to be established: one halfway between those two, and 


64 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


the other on the frontier, to facilitate communication. So 
far as was possible, the Peninsula missions were to furnish 
everything needful to the missions to be founded in Nueva 
California—New California—as it was called. In plan- 
ning thus to denude the Peninsula missions of the fur- 
nishings which had been collected by the now dispersed 
Jesuits, Galvez was but following precedent: that missions 
already established should equip those about to be. ‘The 
list was long of things deemed necessary for the new 
missions, and everything was relentlessly appropriated, 
beginning with seven church bells and ending with silks, 
laces, and such other materials as are used for vestments 
and church upholstery. Some time after, this matter was 
brought up by the Dominicans, but Padre Palou, who was 
left in charge of the chain of missions by Serra, and after- 
ward transferred to Alta California, and whose Life of 
Serra is of inestimable value, states that the visitador, the 
viceroy, and the king repaid the missions for all that was 
taken at that time. 


Meanwhile, as the occupation was to be not only civil 
and military but spiritual, as well,—the usual triple arrange- 
ment of the second phase of Spanish conquest, the first being 
exploration and discovery,—and as missions were to be 
founded, an invitation had been sent the padre presidente, 
at Loreto, to come to headquarters for a conference with 
the visitador. 

He had known, without doubt, all that had been going 
on, and was keenly and personally interested. 

In due time, he arrived at Santa Ana, and plans for the 
expedition were gone into. Serra not only approved of 
what had been done or was in contemplation, but announced 
that he himself would join the expedition, going with a 
division of the land forces. 

From this time on, Serra was in a state of exaltation, and, 
so far as he himself was concerned, dissociated from mate- 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 65 


rial things, living far above his own bodily afflictions, seeing 
only before him the realization, at last, of his long-pent-up 
hope: the hope which had brought him to New Spain; the 
hope which, long years before, had prompted him to turn 
his back upon all worldly preferment so alluringly held out 
to him, and to journey into unexplored wilds, among sav- 
ages, a missionary, bearing to them, as he was absolutely 
certain he was, eternal salvation, a blessed privilege con- 
fided to him and which he could delegate to no one. Years 
before, in far-off Mallorca, he had dreamed a daydream,— 
this follower of St. Francis, ‘““The Seraphic Saint”? loved 
of all men,—and ever and always, a guiding star before 
him, was the hope that the dream might come true; and, 
although the realization was long in appearing, when it 
did arrive at last, he went forth with the great desire still 
burning within him, to meet his dream, a reality. 


On November 21, the visitador issued a proclamation 
making San José (St. Joseph) patron saint of the expedi- 
tion, and charging the priests to say mass and to implore, 
through the intercession of this saint, divine protection. 
But, because “His Illustrious Lordship’’—representing 
“His Most Catholic Majesty, Don Carlos III of Spain’— 
stated, in orders, the first object of the expedition to be 
“the spreading of the Catholic faith,” it came to be known 
as ‘“The Sacred Expedition [La Expedicion Santa]|” of Don 
José de Galvez. 

Available for the seagoing divisions were two small 
vessels, the largest and strongest on the coast, neverthe- 
less, which had been used as transports to Sonora, the 
San Carlos and San Antonio, then under command of 
Captains Vicente Vila and Juan Pérez, experienced navi- 
gators of the royal navy. 

The comandante at San Blas was instructed to outfit 
them as expeditiously as possible and to send them to La 
Paz, the embarcadero, where Galvez, with headquarters 


66 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


still at Santa Ana, superintended everything in person, com- 
municating his own enthusiasm to those about him, and, in 
addition to supervising all arrangements for the division to 
go by sea, sent north to Rivera supplies for the land 
division. 

The San Carlos, a brigantine of eleven sails, but badly 
constructed, as were all craft thereabouts, having been out- 
fitted at San Blas, and loaded with many things for the 
northern establishments, arrived in the early part of 
December, 1768, at La Paz, in a leaky and unseaworthy 
condition, having encountered stormy weather in crossing 
the gulf. The vessel had, therefore, to be unloaded, 
careened, and put into condition to go to sea.  Hittell 
relates that ‘‘Upon examination it was found that a coating 
of pitch would be necessary to put the bottom in good 
condition. But there was no pitch on hand and none to 
be procured. Under the circumstances Galvez conceived 
the idea of extracting a substitute for it from certain plants 
that were found in the neighborhood; and to the astonish- 
ment of everybody he succeeded in doing so. Nor did he 
disdain to labor with his own hands at the work. When 
this was done and the repairs finished, he directed the 
packing of the stores; and, as he had taken part in the 
repairs, so he also took part in the lading,” encouraging 
his men, and creating an interest in the undertaking. 

By January 9, 1769, the San Carlos was ready; and the 
first step toward the desired goal was about to be under- 
taken. Detailed on board was Lieutenant Don Pedro 
Fages with his company of Catalan Volunteers, coming 
originally to New Spain in 1761, and withdrawn from 
Sonora and Sinaloa for service with the expedition to Alta 
California: to subdue the gentilidad—gentiles—should it 
be necessary, before the arrival of the other divisions. 

‘All who were going in her confessed, heard mass, par- 
took of the communion, and then listened to a parting 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 67 


address from Galvez. ‘The visitador reminded his hearers 
that theirs was a glorious mission, that they were going 
to plant the cross among the heathen, and charged them in 
the name of God, the king, and the viceroy to respect their 
priests and maintain peace and union among themselves. 
Finally Junipero Serra pronounced a formal blessing on 
the pilgrims, their vessel, the flag, the crew, and on Father 
Parron... . The ceremony over, the San Carlos [with 
sixty-two persons on board] put to sea. Galvez in the 
Concepcion accompanied her down the gulf md 
(Bancroft). 

“Stopping at San Lucas only long enough to take fresh 
water, and hay for the cattle, the San Carlos, on the night 
of January 15 stood for the South Sea. . .. For four 
days there prevailed light and contrary winds, with oppos- 
ing currents of the ocean, and on each of the four days 
the visitador, from a high hill (cerro eminente), watched 
with anxious gaze the far-off and baffled ship. But on the 
20th good breezes sprang ‘from the east and southeast,’ 
and ‘straightway the San Carlos disappeared’ (Richman). 


The San Antonio was to follow the San Carlos imme- 
diately—and a supply ship, the San José, close on her track, 
—but upon arrival at Cape San Lucas, on the 25th of 
January, the San Antonio was in much the same condition 
the San Carlos had been after crossing the gulf. She had 
to be unloaded and careened, and was not ready to sail 
for almost a month after the flagship had departed; but 
on February 15, after the usual ceremonies, favored by a 
fair wind, she was headed north, and the two divisions by 
sea had been despatched. 

Such delays and difficulties were not always alone due to 
faulty construction, for the teredo, which, Hakluyt narrates, 
“many times pearceth and eateth through the strongest 
oake,” played an important part in rendering vessels unsea- 


68 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


worthy—even as the caravels of Columbus “‘were bored 
as full of holes as a honeycomb.” 

Meanwhile, the comisario, Rivera y Moncada, had 
visited all the missions on his way north, collecting two 
hundred cattle, one hundred and eighty-eight horses and 
mules, food, and various implements. All his prepara- 
tions were now so far advanced that he notified Galvez at 
Santa Ana, and Serra, who had returned to Loreto in 
January from his ingathering among the missions at the 
southern end of the Peninsula and was now busily engaged 
in forwarding articles both to La Paz and to Velicata, 
that his division would be in readiness to start for San 
Diego in March. 

Padre Juan Crespi, who had been selected to accompany 
the first division by land, was notified, and left his mission, 
La Purisima Concepcion, on February 21, being joined on 
the way by Padre Lasuén, who was to bestow the blessing 
upon the departure of the first division. “The two reached 
Velicata on March 22, and two days later Rivera’s division 
marched, guided by the cosmographer, José Canizares, 
pilotin—master’s mate—of the San Carlos, detached for 
land duty. In this division there were three arrieros, some 
forty-one Christianized Indians, and twenty-five soldiers 
from the presidio: soldados de cuera, so called because of 
their cuera, or heavily quilted, sleeveless jacket or coat, 
covered with several thicknesses of deerskin to turn the 
arrows of the Indians. For further protection, there was 
the adarga—shield—made of two thicknesses of rawhide. 
They were mounted, and man and horse were still further 
protected, not only from arrows, but, in riding through 
chaparral, by the armas, an apron of leather, fastened to 
the pommel, falling in front of the horse as low as the stir- 
rups and draped over the legs and thighs of the rider. 

Of them, these soldados de cuera, wrote Don Miguel 
Costanso, an officer in the royal army of Spain: “It is not 
too much to say that they are the best horsemen in the 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 69 


world and among the best soldiers in the service of the 
King.” 


The second division of the land forces was commanded 
by Captain Don Gaspar de Portola, Governor of the Cali- 
fornias,—who had been entrusted, in 1767, with the expul- 
sion of the Jesuits from Baja California, with orders to 
remain as governor. With him were Sergeant José Fran- 
cisco de Ortega and nine or ten “regulars,” forty-four 
Christianized Indians, four arrieros, and two servants. 
The padre presidente was to be with this division and, 
because of his condition, one of the servants was for him. 
He was very lame and no one except himself believed he 
could possibly make the journey. When Portola left 
Loreto on March g, Serra’s collection of vestments and 
other church accessories was not quite complete. Sending 
Padre Campa y Cos to represent him until he himself could 
join them, he announced that he would soon follow, and 
he did. At the end of March, he was ready, and, indomita- 
ble as ever, although suffering excruciating pain, set out. 
On May 5, he arrived at Santa Maria, where Portola’s 
division had been detained waiting for supplies coming by 
water from La Paz to San Luis Bay. He had visited 
en route “‘all the missions, except Santa Rosalia, which lay 
too far [eighteen leagues] from the road” (Engelhardt). 

On May 11, the whole division left Santa Maria, reach- 
ing Velicata three days later on Pentecost Sunday, May 14, 
1769, and there founding the mission planned for the fron- 
tier: San Fernando, the only mission founded on the Pen- 
insula by the Franciscans. 

This division was mustered for its advance into Alta 
California at San Juan de Dios, six leagues north of 
Velicata. On May 21, the march to San Diego began, 
following closely the trail of the first division under Rivera 
y Moncada. 

The fourth and last division was on its way. 


VI 


After a prosperous voyage, with fair winds, the San 
Antonio dropped anchor in the bay of San Diego, on April 
11, 1769. Nothing was to be seen of the San Carlos, which 
had cleared Cape San Lucas on January 15, one month 
prior to the departure of the San Antonio on February 15, 
under the auspices of San Antonio de Padua, patron saint 
alike of the day and of the vessel. The land forces were 
not yet due, and it was soon evident that the capitana had 
not arrived. 

The first land sighted by the San Antonio was one of 
the Santa Barbara Channel Islands, Santa Cruz, about a 
degree and a half too far north. ‘Turning, she ran down 
the coast and, passing Punta Guijarros—Cobblestone Point, 
—entered the port, the first vessel flying the flag of Spain, 
and, in fact, the first craft of any kind to disturb the waters 
of the bay other than the canoes of the Indians, since the 
San Diego, Tres Reyes, and San Tomds of the Vizcaino 
expedition in 1603, one hundred and sixty-six years before. 

Vila’s appointment by Galvez, dated December 27, 1768 
(Bancroft, note), designates him as: “ ‘Capitan, Piloto 
Mayor, y comandante del San Carlos [Captain, Chief 
Navigator, and commander of the San Carlos],’” and 
further, as ‘‘‘piloto de los primeros de la Real Armada 
[sailing-master of the first class in the Royal Navy].’” 
Orders to him, dated January 5, 1769, were issued in dupli- 
cate to Captain Pérez in command of the San Antonio, 
with no expectation, however, that positions as set forth 
might through some untoward circumstance be reversed. 
They are, in part and substantially, as follows: “ ‘Instruc- 
tion to be observed by D. Vicente Vila, . . . Captain Com- 


[ 70 ] 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 71 


mandante of the paquebot of his majesty called the San 
Carlos alias Toison de Oro [Golden Fleece] in the voyage 
which by divine aid this vessel is to make to the ports of 
San Diego and Monterey, situated on the northern coast 
of this peninsula of Californias in 33° and 37° of latitude.’ 

. Ist. The object is to establish the Catholic faith, to 
extend Spanish domain, to check the ambitious schemes of 
a foreign nation, and to carry out a plan formed by Felipe 
III. as early as 1606. Therefore no pains can be spared 
without offense to God, the king, and the country. 2d. The 
vessel being new, strong, and well supplied for over a year, 
to be followed by the San Antonio with additional supplies, 
having only 300 leagues to make, having a strong military 
force, and going to a land whose natives are docile, have 
no arms but bows and arrows, and are without boats, there 
can be no excuse en Jo humano for failure. 3d. Vila is to 
sail Jan. 7th, weather permitting, keep out to sea accord- 
ing to his judgment in search of favorable winds, to take 
careful observations, and to stand in shore at 34°, San 
Diego being in 33° according to the cédula of Felipe IIL., 
and being easy to find by Vizcaino’s narrative enclosed with 
this document in print in the third volume of the Noticia de 
Californias (that is in Venegas, Not. Cal., iii. 85-9)” (ibid., 
note). 

Vila was to wait fifteen days, or at most twenty, for 
Rivera y Moncada with the first division of the land forces. 
While waiting, Don Pedro Fages and Don Miguel Cos- 
tanso were to explore and make surveys; and wood and 
water were to be replenished. 

On the arrival of Rivera y Moncada—or should he not 
have arrived after twenty days—the San Carlos was to sail 
for Monterey, the consort, the San Antonio, with her should 
she have arrived. Also, Vila was to remain at Monterey 
‘in the best fitted of the two vessels” to await the arrival 
of the San José.. It had been assumed that the capitana 
would be the first to arrive at San Diego, and that the 


72 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


Catalonian Volunteers under Lieutenant Fages would be 
found already in full possession upon the arrival of the 
other division, but, as it turned out, the San Antonio, the 
only one of the four divisions without soldiers, was the first 
to arrive. In consequence, and mindful of his responsibili- 
ties, Captain Pérez did not send out exploring parties. 

The two friars, Juan Vizcaino and Pedro Gomez, 
remained closely on board ship, having been instructed to 
take no unnecessary risks. 

Beauty—everywhere—for him who looked to see, made 
no appeal to those on the San Antonio cradled in the waters 
of the wonderful bay, kissed by the sun of those April days, 
shining in that transparent atmosphere, and bluer than the 
lupines carpeting the hills. All was conjecture and anxiety 
as to the fate of the San Carlos. 

Days passed; and at last, when hope was at a very low 
ebb, the capitana appeared. 


Getting under way, after lying for days off the outer 
coast of the Peninsula waiting for a wind, the San Carlos 
had been pursued by misfortune. Almost immediately, 
water casks were found to be leaking badly and it was not 
long before many were quite empty. ‘They were refilled 
but the water was not good, and wearying difficulties were 
encountered in obtaining any fit for use. 

There was much sickness on board. Scurvy developed. 
Many seamen and some of Fages’ men were incapacitated. 
Illness of all kinds was aggravated by bad water, but the 
men were too ailing and weak to launch a boat, lower casks, 
and procure fresh. ‘There were several deaths and the 
colder weather of more northern latitudes added greatly to 
the discomfort of the sick. Daily, conditions grew worse. 

According to orders, Captain Vila proceeded farther 
north than their destination, carefully checking his course 
from Cabrera Bueno and Vizcaino. 

Among other entries in the log “From Tuesday, 25, to 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 73 


Wednesday, April 26.—” Vila records: ‘‘At sunrise, I was 
between four islands and the mainland; the country high 
and mountainous with several high ridges . . . all of them 
covered with snow, like the Sierras Nevadas of Granada on 
the coast between Motril and Salobrena near the Mediter- 
ranean.’ 

Dropping down the coast, keeping a sharp lookout for 
the entrance he is seeking, Vila notes Santa Catalina Island, 
in One connection or another, several times; mentions San 
Clemente and ‘‘made San Pedro Bay.” 

He records: “From Friday, 28, to Saturday, April 29.— 
Ranged along shore . . . . At nine o'clock [the next 
morning], as . . . the fog had lifted somewhat, the islets or 
rocks, which General Vizcaino called Los Coronados, and 
the pilot Cabrera Bueno, islands of San Martin, were 
sighted. They are the best and surest marks for making 
the port of San Diego which is situated . . . due north 
of these islands.” 

Certain of his bearings, on the next afternoon, Captain 
Don Vicente Vila records: ‘‘From Saturday, 29, to Sunday, 
April 30.—On the lookout for the port under all sail; 
Beading*to the eastward... .” 

At four o'clock, according to the log, many things were 
done to the sails, which he describes in nautical terminology 
and with technical detail unnecessary here. One hour later, 
he has taken the San Carlos safely through the entrance 
to the harbor of San Diego. 

He says: “It was five o’clock in the afternoon when I 
passed through, hauling the wind, which changed to the 
merest puff from the northward, with flaws. At this hour 
I discovered the packet San Antonio anchored at Point 
Guijarros, and we broke out our colors. She broke out 
hers and fired one gun to call in her launch which was 
ashore. .. . I lowered the topsails and anchored in six 
fathoms of water... .” 

Almost had the impossible been accomplished—and how 


74 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


gallantly he had done his duty, this don in the service of 
the king! 

Don Vicente—our hero of the moment—further relates: 
“At eight o’clock at night, the launch of the San Antonio 
came with her second in command and pilot, Don Miguel 
del Pino, who gave us an account of her voyage. She 
arrived at this port . . . with half of her crew down with 
scurvy, of which two men had died. They had only the 
seven men who came in the launch [fit] for work; of these 
a few felt symptoms of the disease. Captain Juan Perez 
was also in poor health, and only the two missionaries were 
well.” 

The next morning the San Antonio saluted with six guns, 
and after mass the flagship answered with five. At half 
after ten, Captain Don Juan Pérez and the two frailes, 
Vizcaino and Gomez, came on board. 

Later, the San Carlos heaved anchor and found another 
anchorage alongside the San Antonio. 


Following orders, Pérez had made all preparations for 
the San Antonio to sail for Monterey on May 1, but the 
arrival of the San Carlos, which proved a veritable pest- 
ship, perforce changed all plans. 

Eventually, both ships anchored in the inner harbor to 
be nearer fresh water and in order to land the sick more 
easily, tents having been erected for them on shore. 

Captain Vila records: ‘“From Monday, 8, to Tuesday, 
May 9.—After the completion of the lodgings and shelters, 
the disembarking of the sick was begun and at four o’clock 
in the afternoon they were all ashore; I remained on board 
with the quarter-master, who was extremely ill, a Galician 
seaman, and a little cabin-boy who also had touches of the 
disease. I was unable to walk, and Fray Fernando Parron 
also was ill.”’ Drawn, and where quoted, from the Diary 
of Vicente Vila (Rose). 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 15 


Guns and ammunition were transported to the impro- 
vised hospital and the guns of the San Carlos Pe SO 
as to afford protection to the men on shore. 

Pedro Prat, a Frenchman, a surgeon in the royal army 
of Spain, detailed on board the San Carlos, took charge 
of the sick, assisted by the Franciscan friars. 

Soon, more tents and shelters had to be added, for dis- 
ease contracted from the sick on the San Carlos attacked 
the crew of the San Antonio, and “those who were well 
had all they could do caring for the sick and burying the 
dead.” 

In order to ask their help in locating good drinking water, 
more needed than anything else, the Spaniards sought a 
parley with the Indians. ‘Their intentions were so entirely 
misunderstood that only after much diplomacy, no little 
difficulty, and many efforts did they succeed; but they were 
finally guided to a supply of fine water, which could be 
approached to within easy reach by the ship’s boat, through 
a little inlet penetrating the land for some distance. The 
immediate surroundings seem to have been charming, for 
Don Miguel Costanso writes: ‘Within the grove was a 
variety of Shrubs and odoriferous Plants, as the Rosemary, 
the Salvia, Roses of Castile, and above all a quantity of 
Wild Grapevines, the which at the time were in flower. 
The Country was of joyous aspect, . . . capable of pro- 
ducing every species of fruits’? (Lummis). 

Surgeon Prat was untiring in his efforts to alleviate the 
condition of the sick, and strove to add to his inadequate 
supply of medicines “with some herbs,’”’ says Costans, 
“which he sought in the Fields with a thousand anxieties. 
Of the virtues of which, he had knowledge, and he himself 
was in as sore need of them as were the Sick, since he found 
himself little less than prostrated with the same afflictions 
as they” (ibid.). 

From similar experiences, endured and almost expected 


16 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


by maritime expeditions, Don Miguel Costanso says, in his 
Diario Histérico, “‘was born the resolution to send by land 
another Expedition, which, directing itself toward the same 
destination as the Maritime [expedition], could lend to or 
receive from the latter according to circumstances, such 
succor as they might mutually need” (zbid.). 


Upon the arrival of the first division of the land forces 
under Rivera y Moncada, Fages selected a new site for the 
camp, nearer the water supply, at a point where the river 
empties into the north end of the bay, a spot called by the 
Indians Cosoy. 

The natives ascribed the illness of the whites to their 
food, and while they would accept—or steal—anything else, 
no food coming from the Spaniards was allowed to pass 
the lips of men, women, or children. This was indeed 
fortunate, for the Indians became very troublesome and 
more and more daring in their thievery, later on visiting the 
San Carlos at night, which was guarded by only two soldiers, 
taking the ropes and cutting pieces out of the sails. Such 
material attracted them greatly, bringing out to the full 
their propensity to steal, until they boldly even removed 
the sheets from under the sick. Had the small supply of 
food on hand made an equal appeal, the Spaniards would 
soon have faced starvation. Costanso tells us that ‘““The 
cold made itself felt with rigor at night . . . and the Sun 
. . . by day—alternations which made the Sick suffer 
cruelly, two or three of them dying every day . . .” (ibid.). 

To press on to Monterey was clearly impossible, and 
orders to explore and make surveys in the vicinity of San 
Diego had to be disregarded by Fages and Costans6, Fate 
having evidently determined that the care of the sick and 
the safeguarding of their few possessions were all they 
were to attempt at that time. A greater number is given 
by others—varying with the diarists—but in a letter to the 
Guardian of the College of San Fernando, dated June 22, 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA vit 


Fray Juan Crespi wrote that there had been twenty-three 
deaths. 

These deplorable conditions may have sown the seed, at 
this time, for a harvest of psychological reactions in the 
Indians, and having to do with the greater difficulty experi- 
enced in making converts at San Diego than at the other 
missions. If any impressions still remained of the divine 
origin of the white man, they must have been rudely shat- 
tered by the sight of the ravages of disease and death 
among them. Belief in the superiority of such weaklings 
was impossible; neither could they have confidence in the 
religion proffered by those so manifestly deserted by their 
gods! 


The second division under Don Gaspar de Portola, after 
founding the new mission of San Fernando at Velicata, 
proceeded to San Juan de Dios, about three leagues farther 
on. By that time, Serra’s leg was so swollen that mortifica- 
tion seemed about to set in. He was in such agony that 
Governor Portola suggested his return to Velicata, but this 
he would not even consider, saying: ‘‘Let us not speak of 
that. I have put all my confidence in God, through whose 
goodness I hope to be permitted not only to reach San 
Diego in order to plant and establish the standard of the 
Holy Cross at that port but at that of Monterey as 
well” (Palou). 

‘The governor now ordered a litter to be made, but the 
humble Serra would not consent to be carried by human 
beings. In this extremity he prayed to God most fervently 
for assistance; then calling a muleteer, Juan Coronel by 
name, he said to him, ‘My son, can you find some remedy 
for my sore foot and leg?’ 

“What remedy can I have?’ Coronel replied. ‘I am not 
a surgeon. I am only a mule-driver, and can cure the 
wounds of my beasts only.’ 

“Well, my son,’ said the sufferer, ‘imagine that I am 


78 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


one of those animals, and that this is one of their 
wounds, which pains me so much that I cannot sleep; 
then apply the same remedy you would apply to one of the 
beasts. 

‘“*This I will do to please you, Father,’ said the man. 
Taking some tallow he mixed it with herbs and applied the 
poultice to the sore leg of Fr. Junipero. God rewarded the 
humility of His servant. The patient rested quietly that 
night, and the next morning, to the surprise of every one, 
he arose early to recite matins . . .” (Engelhardt). 

The expedition now proceeded and, under date of May 
28, Serra records in his diary: “Until now we had not seen 
any Women among them [the Indians], and’ I desired for 
the present not to see them fearing that they went naked 
as the men. When two [women] appeared, talking as 
rapidly and efficaciously as this sex knows how and is accus- 
tomed to do; and when I saw them so honestly covered 
that we could take it in good part if greater nudities were 
never seen among the Christian women of the Missions, 
I was not sorry for their arrival.” 

June 2d, he sets down: ‘“‘Flowers many, and beautiful 

. and to-day ... we have met the; Quéeea toe 
Rose of Castile. When I write this I have before me a 
branch . . . with three roses opened, others in Bud, and 
more than six unpetaled. Blessed be He who created 
them!”’ (Lummis). 


Word having been received at San Diego that the second 
division of land forces was approaching, ten men under 
Sergeant José Ortega were detailed to go back along the 
road, meet the governor, and escort him to camp. He 
arrived on June 28 or 29 (authorities differ), in advance 
of his men, who, with the padre presidente, arrived on 
July 1, a little before noon. 

The land forces were more fortunate than the divisions 
by sea, both sections arriving in good health. Costans6 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 719 


says: ‘“The Folk by Land came all without having lost one 
Man, after a march of two Months; but on half Rations 

. the entire daily ration two Tortillas to each indi- 
vidual” (Lummis). 


Two days after reaching San Diego, the padre presidente 
wrote to Padre Palou acting in his stead at Loreto. Begin- 
ning his letter after the manner of the Spanish Franciscans, 
with the invocation: “ ‘Viva Jesus, Maria y Joseph” 
(Palou), he continues in the form in use at that time but 
in keeping with their close friendship, and addresses him 
as “‘Carisimo mio y mi Senor [My beloved and Sir]’” 
(ibid.). 

He writes: “ “Thanks be to God! I arrived the day 
before yesterday, the first of the month, at this truly fine 
and justly famous port of San Diego. Here I found those 
that had set out before me, both by land and by sea, except 
those that have died. ... Here are also the two vessels, 
the San Carlos and the San Antonio; the former, however, 
without sailors, all having died of the scurvy, except 
one...  .’ Referring to the San Antonio, -he says: 
“While assisting the crew of the San Carlos, her own 
sailors were attacked by the malady which carried off eight 
of her men.’ ”’ 

‘Our journey to this place was a happy one. Though 
I started out with a sore leg, it daily grew better, with the 
help of God, and now it is as sound as the other. We have 
not suffered from hunger or other privations, . . . but all 
arrived safely and in good health. ... Insome places the 
road was good, but the greater part of the way was bad. 
About midway the valleys and rivulets began to be delight- 
ful. We found vines of a large size, and in some cases 
quite loaded with grapes. We also found an abundance 
of roses . . . of Castile [“ ‘hay varias rosas de Castilla’ ”’ 
(Palou) ]. In fine, it is a good country, and very different 
from Old California. . . . We have seen immense num- 


80 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


bers of Indians. ... All the males, old and young, go 
entirely naked... . On our whole journey we found 
that the Indians treated us with confidence and good will, 
as though they had known us all their lives... . During 
the whole march we found hares, rabbits, and some deer, 
and also multitudes of wild goats. The mission has not as 
yet been founded, but it will soon be done. I pray God to 
preserve your health and life many years to come... . 
Port and intended mission of San Diego in North Cali- 
fornia, July 3d, 1769. [And just here in the letter is a 
bit uniquely Spanish, found in a copy of Palou’s Vida (and 
it must be in every copy) needing some little red tape to 
glimpse, printed in Mexico in 1787,—bound without boards 
in sheepskin, now mellowed to a soft pearl gray, tied with 
thongs,—which reads: “B. L. M. de V. R., su afectisimo 
Hermano y Siervo—I kiss the hands of Your Rever- 
ence, your most affectionate Brother and Servant.” |—Fr. 
Junipero Serra’”’ (Engelhardt). 


Despite the deplorable state of affairs found awaiting 
them upon arrival at the camp at San Diego, Serra’s enthu- 
slasm is apparent as he sets down for Padre Palou his 
impressions of the new land to which they have come. 

Governor Portola’s report, dated July 4, as to conditions 
at the camp, presents a more heart-rending picture: “ ‘all 
without exception, seamen, soldiers, and officers, are stricken 
with scurvy,—some wholly prostrated, some half disabled, 
others on foot without strength, until the total number of 
dead is thirty-one’’”’ (Richman). 

Afflictions seem more poignant when Costans6o says in his 
Diario Historico: ‘“‘And, this whole Expedition which had 
been composed of more than ninety Men saw itself reduced 
to only Eight Soldiers and as many Marines in a state 
to attend to the safeguarding of the Barks, the working 
of the Launches, Custody of the Camp and service of the 
Sick”? (Lummis). 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 81 


In a conference between the comandante, Don Gaspar 
de Portola, and Captain Don Vicente Vila, the heads of 
the expedition, it was agreed that the San Antonio must 
be sent south with some of the sick, as well as with reports 
from the comandante and the padre presidente, and also 
for the purpose of procuring sailors for both vessels, to 
replace those who had died. Accordingly, the San Antonio 
began her forlorn trip on July 9, manned by a small crew 
of convalescents, only five being sailors, and managed to 
reach San Blas, but, according to the records, “sin gente 
para marear [without people to navigate the ship],”’ nine 
persons having died on the voyage. 


_ At San Diego, it was finally decided that the expedition 
to Monterey was to be undertaken, even though it, perforce, 
must be by land only, and not, as originally planned but 
now impossible, in connection with a division by sea. ‘The 
expedition was to be under command of Don Gaspar de 
Portola. | 

Those who were to be left at San Diego were: the padre 
presidente, Fray Junipero Serra; Captain Vila; Surgeon 
Prat; a guard of eight soldados de cuera; five able seamen; 
a few sick sailors; a blacksmith; eight Baja California neo- 
phytes; and three boy servants—almost forty persons in all. 


Vil 


On July 14, 1769, after mass had been said in honor of 
San Buenaventura, the ‘“‘Doctor Serafico” of the Francis- 
cans, whose fiesta it was, and also a mass in honor of San 
José, by special proclamation of “His Most Illustrious 
Lordship, Don José de Galvez,” patron saint of the expedi- 
tion, the advance to Monterey began. 

Detailed to accompany the comandante, Don Gaspar de 
Portola, were Fray Juan Crespi and Fray Francisco Gomez; 
Captain Don Fernando de Rivera y Moncada, his sergeant, 
José Francisco de Ortega, and twenty-six soldados de cuera; 
Alférez—ensign, or sublieutenant—Don Miguel Costanso, 
engineer officer in the regular army, in whose charge were 
two books on which the party were to depend in locating 
the port of Monterey: the excellent manual of navigation 
of José Gonzalez Cabrera Bueno, printed in Manila in 
1734, and containing Padre Torquemada’s account of the 
Vizcaino voyage along the California coast in 1602-3; and 
La Noticia de la California of Venegas. In the party 
besides those already mentioned were the necessary number 
of arrieros and fifteen Christianized Indians, two neophytes 
from the Peninsula, and “‘the two servants of Portola and 
Rivera” (Bancroft), variously given as, in all, from fifty- 
seven to sixty-four persons. Some of those included were 
scarcely convalescent. 

In the formal departure from San Diego, the order of 
march, often varied because of the exigency of occasions, 
was about as follows: at the head rode Portola, and with 
him were most of the officers, the little group of Catalan 
Volunteers, and some Indians with pioneering implements 
to open a way when necessary; then came the pack train 


[ 82 ] 


OE ee ee ee 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 83 


in four divisions, with arrieros and an escolta—guard; the 
caballada and mulada—the horse drove and the mule drove 
—for relays, were convoyed and the rear defended by the 
rest of the troops under Rivera. 

Distance between watering places for the animals was 
a factor in determining the length of the jornada—day’s 
journey—but, when possible, camp was made early in the 
afternoon. ‘This gave time, in the long daylight of summer, 
for the pioneers to explore and for preparations for the 
next day’s march to be made. Plans were often disarranged 
by having to go in search of animals, for sometimes no 
more than the whispering of the night wind through the 
trees, the stealthy movement of a coyote in the chaparral, 
the least unusual sound or odor, would throw the herd into 
a panic, causing a stampede and no end of trouble. 

“Press on to Monterey,” from the first the supreme 
objective, might well have been the slogan of the expedi- 
tion. With the Portola party, it was the dominant idea, 
and, notwithstanding the weakened condition of many, all 
were anxious to go forward as rapidly as circumstances 
would permit. About every four days, because of fatigue, 
a longer than ordinary halt was necessary; but, on the 
march, from two to four Spanish leagues a day were covered 
from the start. 

Several diaries were kept; that of Fray Juan Crespi is 
still in existence. Yet, to the student eager to get in touch 
with California as they found it, with the object of the 
expedition in mind, what it meant: the Cross with the 
Sword behind it, conquest under the flag of Spain, they 
are disappointing. A feeling of impotence supervenes that 
nothing more can possibly be extracted from those pages 
that have come down the years, briefly outlining the day’s 
march from point to point, and with little or nothing of 
interest, else. An ever increasing impatience is engendered 
at the paucity of expression called forth on the way north- 
ward through the glorious land, until one’s thoughts revert 


84 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


to the conditions under which the advance toward Monterey 
was undertaken, and then impatience is metamorphosed 
into gratitude to the writers, who, on the march, weary, 
and despite the daily struggle through a roadless, unknown 
land, patiently set down what they could! 

Four or five days out from San Diego, a pleasant spot 
was reached, which, at that time, they named San Juan 
Capistrano. This must not be confounded with the place 
to which that name was afterward transferred, for here 
Mission San ‘Luis Rey de Francia was founded in 1798. 

On the 20th and 22d, two Indian children, one badly 
burned and both dying, were baptized, the first baptisms 
by the Franciscans in Alta California. The two friars were 
greatly encouraged, for thus the good work had begun. 

Ten days out, on July 24, from a spot near where, later, 
rose in grace and beauty Mission San Juan Capistrano, they 
sighted the islands, named by Sebastian Vizcaino, San 
Clemente and Santa Catalina. 

In the daily jottings, much mention is made of flowers 
blossoming along the line of march—not blossoming by the 
roadside, for they, themselves, were the road makers, not 
only for the Spanish occupation of Nueva or Alta Cali- 
fornia, but road makers breaking a way for civilization, 
itself, to enter; and part of the way that they broke at that 
time became E/] Camino Real—The Royal Road—‘The 
King’s Highway.” 

There were not many Indians at this stage of the journey, 
but those they encountered were friendly, and hastened to 
tell the Spaniards the now timeworn tale that white men, 
accoutered as they were, were to be found inland! 

On the 28th, they came to a river, which they dignified 
with a very long name, as was their way: El Rio del Dul- 
cisimo Nombre de Jesus—River of the Sweetest Name of 
Jesus. But, after a day of earthquakes, one shock being 
described by Portola as “half the length of an Ave Maria,” 
and, collectively, by Crespi as “horrorosos temblores,” the 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 85 


good padres reconsidered and further lengthened the 
name, naively adding ‘“‘de los temblores.”’ ‘This river was 
the Santa Ana, which name they also bestowed at that time. 
It appears that the Indians were greatly frightened; and, 
to the Spaniards, they seemed to pray “‘to the four winds 
of heaven” for relief. Might it not have been to the gods 
of the four corners of the earth which they were inconsider- 
ately tilting? Notwithstanding the “temblores,”’ they found 
the vicinity attractive and full of possibilities for a mission; 
but, eventually, the mission then discussed, San Gabriel 
Arcangel, was permanently located at a spot some leagues 
distant. 

On the 1st of August, they came upon another river, and 
another long name resulted: E/ Rio de Nuestra Senora de 
los Angeles de Porcitncula—River of Our Lady: of the 
Angels of Porciuncula. Says Padre Crespi: “‘ ‘We rested 
here on August Ist in order that the surrounding country 
might be explored, but above all, in order to gain the 
jubilee indulgence of Our Lady of the Angels of Porciun- 
cula. We both priests celebrated holy Mass; the men 
received holy Communion and performed what was required 
to gain the indulgence’”’ (Engelhardt). 

This, the great indulgence of the Franciscans, is some- 
times called the ‘““Grand Pardon of Assisi,’ for, from the 
afternoon of August 1 until sunset of August 2, “‘Whoso 

. receives the sacrament in the church of Porciuncula 
is granted plenary remission of his sins in this world and 
the next” (Eldredge). Originally granted only to those 
visiting the chapel in Italy, the privilege of the indulgence 
was extended to accompany a follower of St. Francis, so 
that: “It is enough for him to erect an altar and that altar 
will be to him St. Mary of the Angels” (ibid.). 

This tiny chapel, in which angels had been heard to sing 
—and hence the name—was a gift to St. Francis from a 
Benedictine abbot. It was his favorite retreat, and the 
cradle of the Franciscan order. 


86 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


This is the origin of the name of the city of Los Angeles, 
the name of the river repeated, yet varied to become: E/ 
Pueblo de Nuestra Senora La Reina de los Angeles—The 
Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels. 


The course of the river was then followed into a great 
valley, which they named Valle Santa Catalina de los 
Encinos. ‘This is the San Fernando Valley, so-called from 
the mission built there in 1797, named in honor of San 
Fernando Rey de Espana—st. Ferdinand, King of Spain— 
companion to that founded farther south the following year, 
of which mention has been made, San Luis Rey de Francia. 
Here in this wonderful valley more earthquakes were felt, 
which the friars took to indicate volcanoes near by, especially 
as they had passed springs of brea. But Portola, in his 
diary, questions ‘‘‘whether this substance, which flows 
melted from underneath the earth, could occasion so many 
earthquakes’ (Eldredge). 

The difficult ascent of the Santa Susana Mountains was 
next accomplished; but the descent was found so much more 
dificult that, dismounting, the men made their way on foot 
down to the river, the Santa Clara, following its course 
to the sea. There they found E/ Pueblo de las Canoas— 
the Town of the Canoes—of Cabrillo; the large villages 
of the coast Channel Indians, practically unchanged; the 
same spherical houses thatched with straw; the large canoes; 
the Indians of a better type, taller and more intelligent, 
the men fishermen, and the women weavers of coras—grass 
baskets; all just as it had been two hundred and twenty- 
seven years before. They saw a few old sword blades and 
knives, treasured by the natives, mute evidence of those 
who erstwhile had passed that way. Near this village, 
Mission San Buenaventura was founded in 1782, where the 
town of Ventura now is,—the ‘intermediate mission” of 
the three planned in 1768-9; that in which Don José de 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 87 


Galvez had so personally interested himself, even to pack- 
ing furnishings for it with his own hands. 

Following the coast, the expedition passed where the 
town and mission of Santa Barbara now are. In that vicin- 
ity, some strange cemeteries were noticed, those for men 
and women being entirely separate. Painted poles marked 
the graves of both. ‘Those over the men were surmounted 
by tufts of their hair, while the poles over the women were 
adorned with coras—the work of their hands, testifying to 
their skill. 

At a place named by the friars San Luis, a gull was killed. 
The spot was renamed by the soldiers, and became La 
Gaviota—the Sea Gull. 

On the 30th of August, they crossed the mouth of a 
large stream, dry shod, by means of a sandbar in lieu of 
a bridge; this, the Rio de Santa Rosa, became the Santa 
Inés River, from the Mission Santa Inés, established on 
its banks in 1804. 

A spur of the mountains, Point Sal, now turned the 
expedition inland through a little pass, camp being made 
beside a small lake to which half a dozen different names 
were given, each because of the special point of view of the 
donors. ‘To Costanso, officer of engineers, cosmographer, 
cartographer, topographer, the shape, the lake being very 
nearly circular, suggests the name: Laguna Redonda— 
Round Lake—it was to him. Padre Crespi, probably with 
their own trials in mind, bestows the names of two martyrs. 
Because of the many snakes thereabouts, some of the others 
decide Real de las Viboras—Camp of the Snakes—appro- 
priate. But, at this place, a bear was killed, so disappoint- 
ingly lean that its lack of succulency was not overlooked by 
hungry men who had had visions of juicy bear meat. ‘This 
camp was dubbed by the soldiers E] Oso Flaco—The Thin 
Bear—and this name, out of all conferred, endured; for 
the lake “‘is still known by that name” (Eldredge). El oso 


88 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


flaco, whose shortcomings have been so slightingly perpetu- 
ated—if not some other oso and just a case of mistaken 
identity—is not recognizable in the bruin described by 
Miguel Costansé in his Diary: ‘September 2.—In the after- 
noon, as they had seen many tracks of bears, six soldiers 
went out hunting on horseback, and succeeded in shooting 
one. It was an enormous animal: it measured fourteen 
palmos [about ten feet] from the sole of its feet to the 
top of its head; its feet were more than a foot long; and 
it must have weighed over 375 pounds [15 arrobas|]. We 
ate of the flesh and found it savory and good” (Teggart). 

Villages were still found along the line of march, but 
not so many as farther south. At a rancheria near one 
camp was an Indian afflicted with some sort of pendulous 
protuberance about his neck—possibly a goiter—nicknamed 
by the soldiers ‘El Buchon.’ From this we have both 
Point and Mount Buchon. This word does not appear in 
modern Spanish dictionaries, but seems to be derived from 
the word buche—a craw or crop—which graphically coin- 
cides with the condition as described. 

Proceeding through San Luis Canon, they pitched camp 
near the site of the present city of San Luis Obispo, where, 
a few years later, Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa was 
founded. Here they turned and camped in La Canada de 
los Osos—Bear Valley—and many bears there were. In 
the words of the old nursery tale, there were ‘“‘big bears, 
middle-sized bears, and little wee-wee bears.” They were 
all there, whole families living undisturbed for generations; 
for, besides having no weapons with which to wage war 
against big game, a superstition, preventing the killing of 
bears, existed among these Indians. 

A bear hunt was organized, and one was killed and eaten. 
He died hard. According to one of the diaries, nine shots 
were required to put an end to him. Another one, shot 
but not killed, wounded two mules and escaped. In the 
mélée, one of the soldiers had a narrow escape, and almost 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 89 


paid for his sport with his life. No information is fur- 
nished as to what kind of bears they were: osos, just bears. 
Crespi, whose adjectives always help out the story and 
adorn the tale, says they were “ferocisimos brutos,” which 
seems to spell “grizzlies.” 

It is interesting to note what they thought they knew 
of this coast, which they hugged so tenaciously. In Cos- 
tanso’s Diario Historico, we find: “By the name of Exterior 
or Occidental [Coasts] of California are known those 
Coasts of North America which bound [registran] the 
Asiatic Ocean, or be it, [the] Sea of the South, and ramble 
along its waters the long space of more than 500 Maritime 
leagues between Cape San Lucas in 22 degrees and 48 
minutes [North] Latitude, and the Rio de los Reyes in 
43 degrees” (Lummis). 

Nothing at all was known of the inland topography, and 
so they turned once more toward the coast. The line of 
march from this point should not have been toward the 
sea, but had this been known to them we should not have 
had the story of what followed this mistake. 

The coast was now followed for ten leagues “until their 
path seemed closed by a spur terminating in Mount Mars, 
which rises three thousand feet almost perpendicularly from 
the sea’ (Eldredge). 

On the 13th of September, they encamped in a little 
canada at the foot of the Sierra de Santa Lucta, so named 
by Vizcaino: Cabrillo’s Sierra de San Martin. Explorers 
were sent out under Rivera y Moncada to find a way 
through the mountains. It became a question of crowbars 
and pickaxes, and for two days the pioneers labored to open 
a way. 

With so many sick, the ascent was very difficult, strug- 
gling upward, as they themselves put it, “‘con el credo en 
la boca,” which being interpreted—not translated—may be 
taken to mean: “‘with their hearts in their mouths,’ and 
in fear of death every moment; only to find, when the ascent 


90 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


was accomplished, a perilous descent and still more moun- 
tains to conquer. One league a day under these conditions 
was thought very good progress. 

They rested in a little basin, La Hoya de Santa Lucia, 
near the headwaters of the Rio San Antonio, in which 
vicinity, only two years later, one of the most prosperous 
missions established in Alta California was founded: Mis- 
sion San Antonio de Padua. 

On the 20th, they broke camp and again struggled with 
ascents steep and dangerous, and descents equally or more 
so, and on through a deep and narrow gorge, in which 
flowed a stream of ice-cold mountain water. Another climb 
brought them to the top of the ridge, where they were able 
to see the whole sierra in every direction. Before them, 
tier on tier of mountains presented the same difficulties they 
had already encountered, or new problems to solve. To 
Padre Juan Crespi, ‘‘ “This was a sad spectacle for poor 
wanderers, tired and exhausted from the hardships of such 
a march full of obstacles, which required the filling up of 
marshes, the opening up of roads through mountains and 
forests, sand dunes and swamps’”’ (Engelhardt). 

With the waning of summer in this more northern lati- 
tude, the cold in the mountains began to be keenly felt 
by the sick, many of them being unable to walk; and all 
were utterly exhausted. ‘The expedition halted in a little 
mountain valley, and there they rested for four days before 
beginning the descent on the north side of the range. From 
some fancied resemblance, in the rock formation, to wounds, 
this place was named by Crespi Las Llagas de San Fran- 
cisco—The Wounds of St. Francis. 

The descent made at last, on the 25th they came upon 
a river, the Salinas, naming it El Rio San Elizario, down 
which they marched, and on September 30, after their 
strenuous detour, they were again at the coast. ‘The sup- 
position gradually taking shape that this river might be 
Vizcaino’s Rio Carmelo—Carmel River—was the pro- 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 91 


toplasm of much that followed. Starting with this incorrect 
hypothesis, bearings began to be lost; points which had 
been easily recognized at first mystified them by being in 
the wrong places; until, becoming hopelessly bewildered, 
they finally failed to recognize anything. 

On October 1, Portola, Costans6, Crespi, and five sol- 
diers climbed a high hill, and Crespi tells us the result: 
©’, . . from the top . . . we saw the great entrance, and 
conjectured that it was the one which Cabrera Bueno puts 
between Point Ano Nuevo and Point Pinos of Monterey.’ ” 
On the other hand, Rivera, taking with him eight men, 
explored southward along the shore, toward Punta de los 
Pinos—Point of Pines—and over to what is described as: 
‘a small bight formed between the said point and another 
south of it, with an arroyo . . . and some little lagoons 
of slight extent.’”” Says Bancroft: “The places thus 
explored are Carmelo bay, river, and point; neverthe- 
less Rivera returns to camp saying that no port is to be 
found.” 

The latitude of the bay of Monterey, as given by 
Cabrera Bueno, is 37°, and this assisted in bringing about 
the dilemma; for, by Costanso’s reckoning, 36°, 20’, they 
are not quite far enough north. The march northward was 
not resumed, however, without due consideration. 

After mass, celebrated in a brushwood hut, at the mouth 
of El Rio San Elizario, on October 4, a council of officers 
and friars was held. Governor Portola, the comandante, 
was the first to speak, and, among other things, declared 
that what should have been a port was only a little ensenada, 
and what should have been great lakes were lagunillas. 
Then Costans6 was called upon, his opinion being that they 
had not yet reached the latitude of Monterey, and that 
the expedition ought to proceed to at least 37°, 30’, either 
to locate the port or definitely to prove its nonexistence. 
Fages now spoke, and agreed in substance with Costanso, 
and that, whatever the outcome, the port had assuredly 


92 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


not been passed. ‘Then came Rivera, the pessimistic, who 
did not think Monterey would be found; but, as they should 
have to establish themselves somewhere, and, decidedly, 
not where they were, he advised going on. 

After the whole subject had been thoroughly discussed, 
Governor Portola proposed that, after a short rest, the 
expedition should proceed, and, further, that as Monterey 
had not been found where it was supposed to be, if, after 
proceeding as far as possible, it still should not have been 
located, then another place suitable for settlement was to 
be selected. This was unanimously agreed to, put in writ- 
ing and signed by all. (Drawn from Engelhardt. ) 

Heavy responsibilities weighed upon the leaders in their 
further quest of Monterey. At the time of the conference 
of the officers and friars; at the time the unanimous decision 
was reached to again “press on to Monterey,” they well 
knew that, with an eighty-two days’ march between them 
and their base of supplies, and with that strenuous journey 
vividly fresh in their minds, provisions were giving out and 
but eighty costales of flour remained. 

Sergeant Ortega with a few men set out on October 6; 
and on the 7th the advance of the whole expedition was 
resumed. Seventeen men were now on the sick list, and on 
the day they broke camp eleven had to be carried on litters. 
Sergeant Ortega, later, gave a few details in a fragmento, 
as to just what that really meant. ‘He says 16 lost the 
use of their limbs. Each night they were rubbed with oil 
and each morning were fastened to the tijeras, a kind of 
wooden frame, and raised to the backs of the mules.” 
Truly, they did not lack courage, these ‘‘road makers.” 

From the seashore, they now turned inland for a time, 
crossing a river duly presented with the name of a saint 
by Crespi. It was given another by the soldiers, as was 
so often the case: El Rio del Pajaro, because of a great bird 
—perhaps a royal eagle—that the Indians had killed and 
stuffed with dry grass, which measured eleven palmos— 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 93 


seven feet and four inches—from the tip of one wing to the 
tip of the other. | 

Moving onward toward what is now Soquel, these tired 
wayfarers paused amazed before Sequoias, rising heaven- 
ward like the columns of a great cathedral,—for their eyes 
had not looked upon the like before. The keepers of the 
journals grew more communicative; they had come upon 
something worthy of their pens. Fages writes: ‘‘ ‘Here are 
trees of girth so great that eight men placed side by side 
with extended arms are unable to embrace them.’” Of 
these great trees of the foggy coast region of California 
north of the southern limits of Monterey County, Sequoias 
sempervirens, Costanso says in his Diary: “They were the 
largest, highest, and straightest trees that we had seen 
up to that time; some of them were four or five yards in 
diameter.” Good Padre Juan, who knows of nothing with 
which to liken these wonders of the world of nature, with 
more than his usual loquacity, but fewer of his delightful 
superlatives, seeks only to say what they do not resemble: 
“We came (October 10) on some tall trees of reddish- 
colored wood of a species unknown to us, having leaves 
very unlike those of the Cedar, and without a cedar odor; 
and as we knew not the names of the trees, we gave them 
that of the color of the wood, palo colorado (red wood).’”’ 

And thus the tree was named. 


VIII 


After the departure of the Portola expedition on July 14, 
those left at San Diego began active preparations for “the 
spreading of the Faith’? among the heathen. 

For the founding of the mission, the next day but one 
was selected, July 16, the day the Catholic Church in Spain 
commemorates the triumph in the year 1212 of the Cross 
over the Crescent. A cross was raised facing the port, 
after it had been blessed by the padre presidente, who also 
sang the high mass celebrated afterward. 

At last the great day had come and gone; and the first 
mission to be established by the Franciscans in Alta Cali- 
fornia, Mission San Diego de Alcala, had been finally 
founded. 

Indians hung about the camp, eager for the little gifts 
so often forthcoming, but still refusing food of any kind, 
as they had from the first; and, also as they had from the 
first, stealing anything else they could lay hands on. 

Growing rapidly more daring and their cupidity at last 
outweighing their fear of the firearms of the Spaniards, 
which, in their ignorance, had been little at any time, armed 
with clubs, bows, and arrows, they boldly made a vicious 
attack on the camp on August 12, continuing it on the 13th. 

On the 15th, the fiesta of the Assumption, when only four 
soldiers were in camp, and just as the padre presidente 
was concluding mass, they again arrived in large numbers, 
prepared to do battle and carry out their original intention 
of killing every one and possessing themselves of all the 
intensely coveted articles. Before they could be repulsed, 
a servant of Padre Vizcaino was mortally wounded, and 


[ 94 ] 


ea 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 95 


the padre himself struck in the hand by an arrow. After 
they were again fired upon, they withdrew, taking their 
wounded with them; but after several days, they brought 
them back begging treatment for them, which, it is needless 
to say, they received. 

After the attitude of the natives toward them had thus 
been clearly demonstrated, an estacada—stockade—was 
thrown about the entire camp, and no Indians who were 
armed were permitted to enter the mission enclosure. They 
still hung about, but for reasons having no connection with 
the desire of the padres for their presence; nor did they 
manifest any inclination to be enlightened in regard to it. 
Their souls’ salvation interested them not at all. Curiosity 
possessed them for one thing, the insatiable desire for gifts 
for another, and the ever present impulse to steal whatever 
they could. 

One youth, about fifteen years of age, had picked up a 
little Spanish, and seeing in this the most available oppor- 
tunity for inserting a wedge for a real beginning in the 
“spreading of the Faith,” the padres used him as their 
emissary, and through him made an alluring offer to the 
other Indians, saying that if they would send a child to 
be brought up by them at the mission, not only would he 
be made a son of the Church and a Christian, but that he 
would be adopted by the soldiers as a relative, and would 
be dressed like them in fine clothes. To the great delight 
of Serra, this offer was accepted. 

In due time, an Indian with an infant in his arms arrived, 
followed by troops of the gentilidad. Remembering their 
intense delight in such things, and wishing to give unmis- 
takable evidence of his appreciation of their response to the 
offer made them, Serra threw a piece of beautiful material 
over the child as a prelude to baptism. Godfathers were 
selected from among his to-be relatives, the soldiers, and 
the ceremony began. All was going happily and to the 
satisfaction of the friars, until the holy water was to be 


96 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


applied, when, suddenly, the Indians seemed to be filled with 
consternation, and, seizing the infant, they incontinently fled, 
leaving the astonished padre presidente with the shell of 
holy water suspended in mid-air. 

The seeming wanton impiety of the act and the disrespect 
to Fray Junipero filled the Spaniards with indignation, but 
Serra would allow no punishment to be meted out to them. 
Keenly disappointed, he ascribed the failure to some of 
his own sins. 


On the 15th, after a long halt because of the serious 
condition of the sick, the Portola expedition marched. On 
the 17th, a river was crossed and named San Lorenzo. On 
the 20th, halt was made on the beach at the entrance to 
a canon, and again the expedition rested. On the afternoon 
and night of the 21st, rain fell. All were wet and miser- 
able—there were no tents—but the sick were not in so much 
pain, and for that reason, although Crespi had named the 
place San Luis Beltran, the soldiers called it La Canada de 
la Salud. Not far away, west by north, estimated by Crespi 
as one league from camp, a low-lying rocky tongue of land, 
scarcely showing above the water, was observed. On the 
23d, camp was moved two leagues farther on. Under that 
date in the Diary of Miguel Costanso, we find: “Note: The 
point of rocks which we left behind is that known as 
the Punta de Ano Nuevo. Its latitude is, with a slight 
difference, the same as that of the Canada de la Salud” 
(Teggart). 

Provisions were now at so low an ebb that rations had 
been reduced to five tortillas a day, made of bran and flour; 
there had been no meat for a long time, and of vegetables 
there were none. 

With the coming of the rainy season, new maladies devel- 
oped; but, to the surprise of all, those suffering from scurvy, 
their steady compagnon du voyage, grew rapidly better. 
Rivera was among those tortured by that disease, while 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 97 


Portola was now seized with one of the ailments which were 
finally to relieve them of it. 

Short halts were made to ease the sick, but, as though 
driven by some unseen force, on and still on they went— 
sick and well together—these crusaders of the expedicion 
santa. Ill, half starved, but still undaunted, they pressed 
on in their quest of Monterey, which famoso puerto was 
now far behind. 

Descending into a little valley through which a stream 
ran to the sea, a rincon—ainside corner—in the cliffs, pro- 
tected from the winds, they encamped, and feasted to their 
fill on mussels and other shellfish, while the pioneers broke 
a way up the wall of rock impeding their farther advance. 
While Crespi, in gratitude, named this little haven La 
Punta del Angel Custodio—Point Guardian Angel—others, 
less spiritual, called it: La Punta 6 Rincon de las Almejas— 
Mussel Point. 

Once a way was cleared, all who were strong enough 
followed the pioneers to the top of the cliff. From the 
promontory on which they stood, the coast line was bleak 
and precipitous. Distant white cliffs were perceived, and, 
beyond, was what seemed to be the mouth of an inlet. 
Looking out over the water, across what appeared to be 
a bight, they saw, far to the northwest, a high point extend- 
ing into the sea. 

These landmarks were recognized immediately. ‘The 
distant point could not but be Vizcaino’s Punta de los Reyes; 
and under and back of it must be Cermenho’s Bahia de 
San Francisco, so clearly drawn by Cabrera Bueno. 

When the three missions for Alta California had been 
named, noting the omission, Serra had asked, “ ‘and is there 
to be no mission for our Father San Francisco?’”’ ‘To this, 
Galvez had replied, ‘‘ ‘If San Francisco wants a mission, let 
him cause his port to be discovered, and it will be placed 
there’”’ (Engelhardt from Palou). To them, this answer 
was full of significance and they were fully convinced that 


98 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


the port of Monterey had been miraculously hidden from 
their eyes, so that St. Francis might the better call their 
attention to his own port. But San Francisco’s port was 
never established there. 

The way up the coast was resumed, the next camp being 
in San Pedro Valley. 

There were still those who doubted that Monterey had 
been passed, and a party was, therefore, detailed to proceed 
as far as Point Reyes, with Sergeant Ortega in charge. 
Taking provisions for three days, they set out. 

During the absence of Ortega, a party of soldiers, while 
hunting deer, climbed the northeastern hills. From the 
summit, they saw that which sent them back to camp with 
a report that created no little excitement; for they had 
seen stretched out before them a vast sheet of water, 
spreading both northward and southeastward, as far as 
their eyes could see. From where they stood, no entrance 
running in from the ocean had been observed, but those 
in camp agreed with the discoverers that this must be 
the estero described by Cabrera Bueno “as entering the 
land from the port of San Francisco under Point Reyes” 
(Bancroft). 

This revelation was not destined, however, to become 
even a ‘‘seven days’ wonder,” and the matter of the great 
inland sea, the excitement of the day before, was relegated 
to the background, for the returning Ortega party brought 
news that was of much greater immediate and material 
importance. Coming upon a brazo de mar—an arm of 
the sea—lying directly across his path, Ortega had seen 
at once that, as the expedition had no boats, it was not 
possible to reach Cermenho’s Bay of San Francisco without 
a detour of indefinite length, taking a longer time than the 
three days allotted them for their reconnaissance. But this 
was of no more importance than the great inland sea now 
was, compared with the information communicated to 
Ortega during a parley with the Indians, in the usual “sign 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 99 


language’’: that at the head of the estero at that moment, 
and at no very great distance from where they then were, 
floated a ship at anchor. They hailed this as news of the 
San José, the supply ship which the visitador was to despatch 
immediately after the San Antonio. 

With this sudden vision of the possibility of food in 
plenty within a short march, the idea that it was in fact 
the San José obsessed them. Moreover, the bay of Mon- 
terey might be in the immediate vicinity, and the San José, 
laden with all they so sadly needed, rocking peacefully on 
the waters of the “famoso puerto’ itself! There seemed 
but one thing to do—and they did it—break camp and go 
in search of the San José and food! 


The failure of the early explorers to find their way from 
the ocean into and through the entrance to the harbor, 
which, of necessity, to those especially seeking it would have 
suggested that mysterious, evasive, northwest passage, the 
Strait of Anian, has been much commented upon. But 
there were not so many of those early explorers. Invoking 
the process of elimination, casting into the discard those 
who are doubtful or unworthy of credence, we have only 
two expeditions sent out from New Spain for special 
exploration on the northwest coast of the Californias: the 
Navidad expedition, in 1542, under Juan Rodriguez 
Cabrillo; and, after an interval of sixty years, the Vizcaino 
expedition in 1602. ‘Thirty-six years after Cabrillo, we 
find Drake sojourning on the California coast not very far 
north of the Golden Gate, putting his vessel, the Golden 
Hind, alias the Pelican, in order for the homeward voyage. 
In the fantastic tales which have come down to us, based 
upon Fletcher’s notes, no mention is made of the great 
harbor. It must be remembered that this expedition was 
a private enterprise, and had not been, openly, officially 
despatched for exploration on this coast, as had the two 
_ from New Spain already mentioned. It was, however, for 


100 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


reasons of its own, and, incidentally, for England, seeking 
the northwest passage. 

There were two more of the oft spoken of early explorers, 
both commanding vessels engaged in the Philippine trade, 
both instructed to investigate the coast of the Californias 
for a harbor suitable for a refitting station for those vessels: 
Gali, who inadvertently made the acquaintance of the Japan 
Current; and Cermenho, whose vessel, the San Agustin, 
was wrecked in the harbor which he named La Bahia de 
San Francisco. 

Galleons returning from Manila skirted almost the entire 
length of the California coast, touching occasionally, but 
bent on business of their own: the delivery of their valuable 
cargoes at Acapulco. There was, in connection, a passenger 
service. On the 1697-98 voyage from Manila to Acapulco, 
the Italian, Giovanni Francesco Gemelli Careri, on a jour- 
ney around the world, was a passenger. He wrote very 
fully; and, as described by him, conditions on board were 
loathsome in the extreme and the trip was a frightful experi- 
ence, lasting more than seven months. 

With a free hand, in her California: An Intimate His- 
tory, Mrs. Gertrude Atherton deals with the nondiscovery 
in rather a striking way; interesting and, except as to time, 
a matter of some thousands of years, relatively—in eternity 
—nothing at all, is not greatly at variance with theories 
advanced by geologists. This is the story as she tells it: 
‘‘When Gaspar de Portola discovered the Bay of San Fran- 
cisco in 1769 he found the surrounding country inhabited 
_ by Indians whose ancestors had dwelt on the peninsula and 
among the Marin hills ever since that uneasy coast had 
been hospitable to man. From them he heard the tradition 
that some two hundred years earlier the space covered by 
the great inland sheet of water had been a valley, fertile 
and beautiful, broken by hills and watered by two rivers 
that rose in the far north and found their outlet to the sea 
through Lake Merced. Then came a mighty earthquake, 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 101 


the valley sank, the hills of the coast were rent apart, the 
salt waters rushed in and covered not only the sunken 
valley floor, but all save the tips of its hills. . . . Only 
the end of the fertile Central Valley was gone, and in its 
place the Pacific coast had been presented with one of the 
three great harbors of the world.” 

There was such a tradition among the Indians, referred 
to by Padre Payéras many years after the Portola expedi- 
tion; and the mapping done by the unfortunate cartographer 
of the Vizcaino voyage gives no hint of an opening in the 
coast line at that place; but to one familiar with the region 
thereabouts, and with certain climatic conditions that prevail 
at times, when rivers of fog flowing in from the ocean fill 
every channel, obliterating indentations and landmarks, 
rendering the shore unrecognizable even to modern navi- 
gators with exact charts spread out before them, no con- 
vulsion of nature need be invoked by way of explanation 
of the failure of those five early explorers to observe and 
penetrate that cleft in the cliffs, the narrow entrance to 
the port, before which, at times, a portcullis of fog is 
dropped, where it hangs unlifted for days—a curtain, 
impenetrable to the eye. 

It is often asserted that no name was given this great 
expanse of water by the Portola party. If that be true, it 
was certainly contrary to the custom of the expedicion santa, 
which could not be accused of niggardliness in the bestowal 
of names. It is very certain that any spot having the 
slightest claim to one got it. Therefore, the idea that this 
inland sea should alone be neglected and left nameless for 
years is preposterous. It is more probable, from the Cos- 
tanso diary, and also from an entry made at a later period, 
in the diary of Don Pedro Fages, that they were under the 
impression that it had already been named by Cermenho. 
In a note given by Richman, the reference in the Costanso 
diary reads as follows: ‘“‘We were more and more confirmed 
in our opinion that we were in the puerto de San Francisco 


102 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


and that this [the estero] was that spoken of by the piloto 
Cabrera Bueno in the following words: ‘By the gorge enters 
an estero of salt water without surf.’’’ The Fages entry 
speaks of “‘the great mouth of the Estero de San Francisco, 
parallel to the Ensenada de la Punta de los Reyes, in front 
of which were the seven farallones, that in the year 1769, 
we saw when we encamped near.” Furthermore, it is men- 
tioned by both Crespi and Portola, in letters quoted later in 
these pages. | 

Crossing the hills, a cavada was followed to a spot west 
of where Millbrae now is; the next day, a turn to the south 
was made. On the 6th, camp was pitched on ‘San Francis- 
quito Creek in the vicinity of Searsville’ (Bancroft). 

Sergeant Ortega, with eight men, then went in search of 
the vessel reported by the Indians as lying at anchor at the 
head of the estero; but, when the head of the estuary was 
reached, no vessel of any kind cheered their eyes, and, upon 
his return to camp, Ortega’s report blasted all hopes of the 
arrival of the San José. They then determined to search 
no farther for Monterey, but to return to San Diego as 
speedily as possible. 

On November 11, the return march was begun. The 
28th found them again at Carmelo, where it was decided 
that it was impossible to follow the coast southward from 
that point. Snow covered the hills and the cold was very 
penetrating. ‘[here was no game, no fish; and provisions 
were almost gone. 

A great cross was raised and on it was carved: “ ‘Dig at 
the foot and thou wilt find a writing’”’ (Bancroft). A 
letter put in a bottle and buried at the foot was addressed 
to the commander of any vessel, and requested him to 
endeavor to communicate with the land expedition then 
moving southward. Crespi included a copy in his diary, 
and added: “ ‘Glory be to God, the cross was erected on 
a little hillock . . . and at its foot we buried the letter’ ” 
(Engelhardt). 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 103 


Crossing the peninsula to the still unrecognized bay of 
Monterey, another cross was raised on the shore, on which 
they inscribed: “ “The overland expedition from San Diego 
returned from this place . . . starving’”’ (ibid.). 

On the 11th, they were fairly on their way; and, again, 
had missed the objective of the entire expedition, for Mon- 
terey, the famoso puerto, had not been located. Referring 
to this, Crespi, always interesting, but evidently at this time 
_ worn, weary, disappointed, and, in consequence, a little 
‘peevish, writes: “‘‘In view . . . of our not finding in these 
regions the port of Monterey so celebrated and so praised 
in their time by men of character, skilful, intelligent, and 
practical navigators who came expressly to explore these 
coasts by order of the king . . . we have to say that it is 
not found after the most careful efforts made at cost of 
much sweat and fatigue; ... no such port has been 
found . . . At Pt. Pinos there is no port, nor have we 
seen in all our journey a country more desolate than this, 
or people more rude, Sebastian Vizcaino to the contrary 
notwithstanding . . . although this was easier to be mis- 
represented than a port so famous as was Monterey in 
former centuries’”’ (Bancroft, note). | 

With trifling exceptions, the expedition returned to San 
Diego over its northward line of march. The return was 
accomplished with less discomfort, the general health of 
the party was infinitely better, and, as there was now grass 
in abundance, the condition of the animals had improved. 
While at first there was little to eat, more food was to be 
had later on, albeit by bartering their clothes with the 
natives for game and fish, until, it is true, they had but 
little left with which to cover themselves! But, even so, 
they were obliged to eat twelve of their mules during the 
journey to keep from starving. 

Exactly what that experience meant to Governor Portola 
is found in a statement he is reported as having made in 
a conversation with a friend several years later, as recorded 


104 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


by Juan Manuel de Viniegra and reproduced by Chapman: 
‘Tn order that we might not die . . . I ordered that at 
the end of each day’s march, one of the weak old mules . . . 
should be killed. The flesh we roasted . . . in a hole in 
the ground. The mule being thus prepared, without a grain 
of salt or other seasoning—for we had none—we shut our 
eyes and fell to on that scaly mule (what misery!) like 
hungry lions. .. . At last we entered San Diego, smell- 
ing frightfully of mules.’”’ This was on January 24, 1770. 

It is truly remarkable that with all the illness, privations, 
and dangers through which they had passed, all those who 
had gone forth on July 14 returned. Not one death had 
occurred. 

When nearing the mission founded two days after their 
departure more than six months before, they announced 
their approach with a discharge of musketry. Following 
rejoicings over their safe return, a full account had to be 
given to those who had been left behind of all that had 
been seen and done by those who had made the journey. 
Surprise that Monterey had not been found knew no 
bounds. Both Serra and Vila were convinced that the 
explorers had actually been to Monterey, but for some 
inexplicable reason had failed to recognize it. ‘The greet- 
ing to Portola upon his return, credited to Serra, connotes 
this: “You come from Rome without having seen the 
pope” (ibid.). 

In the various diaries are various reasons, as well as 
various excuses, for the failure to locate the port at that 
time. According to Padre Palou, Crespi wrote him that 
he feared the port had been filled up. Serra, in one of his — 
letters, referred to this theory based on the great sand 
dunes found by the Portola party where the port should 
have been. Fages lays it to discrepancies in latitude, for 
one thing, saying: ‘‘ ‘We knew not if the place where we 
were was that of our destination . . . for after having 
taken the latitude, we found that we were only in 36°, 44’, 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 105 


while, according to the reports of . . . Cabrera Bueno, 
Monterey should be in 37°, and so serious an error was 
not supposable on the part of a man of well known skill’ ”’ 
(Bancroft, note). 


We have heard much of the peaceful conquest of Cali- 
fornia by Spain. In fact, there are many, ignorant alike 
of the regular second phase of Spanish conquest, in which 
spiritual and military occupation advanced side by side— 
missions and presidios, the Cross with the Sword behind it, 
conquest under the flag of Spain, and of the many revolu- 
tions of the wheels of state, necessary before the order 
had been forthcoming ‘‘to occupy and fortify San Diego 
and Monterey,” who have no mental vision more definite 
than of Fray Junipero Serra, staff in hand, alone, perhaps, 
or with a group of Franciscan friars in attendance, wander- 
ing into Alta California from somewhere, converting the 
Indians, who fall on their knees before them, eager to 
veceive holy baptism, and who with the help of these deeply 
-eligious converts, build missions, and, adding to the abun- 
Jance already on all sides in this new land “flowing with 
milk and honey,” plant vines and fig trees, pomegranates 
and olives! 

Far from being a peaceful progress of gentle friars up 
through a flower-decked land, surrounded by bands of ador- 
ing natives, on every journey they were accompanied by 
soldados de cuera to protect them from the Indians, who, 
although without firearms, had bows and arrows, and while 
not so warlike as the Apaches, Seris, and other tribes, were 
still savages and an ever present danger. 

There was illness to be met and the ravages of disease; 
there was starvation, for they were far distant from a base 
of supply; and, although, undeniably, possession was not 
secured through the supreme sacrifice on the field of battle 
accompanied by the death song of shot and shell, possession 
was neither easily gained nor held! 


IX 


Upon the return of the Portola expedition after an 
absence of more than six months, the San Carlos was still 
tied up to her moorings. The San Antonio, despatched 
to Mexico before their departure, had not yet returned; 
nor had the San José put in an appearance. Provisions 
at the camp were running low, and, daily and anxiously, 
the horizon was scanned in the hope that one or the other, 
or both, might be seen in the offing. 

This is the story of the San José: After the San Carlos 
and San Antonio had been despatched, Don José de Galvez 
turned his attention to the San José, and she was sent to 
La Paz for repairs. From there, she crossed the gulf, 
returning to Loreto with a cargo of supplies. That seems 
to have been the last thing successfully accomplished. After 
that, all was lucklessness and disaster. Setting sail from 
Loreto in June for San Diego, she was to have touched 
at San José del Cabo, but did not. Three months later, 
she was back at Loreto with a broken mast, crossing from 
there to San Blas for further repairs, from which place, 
with a crew for the San Carlos on board, seaworthy, early 
the following spring, she departed for San Diego, and was 
never heard of again. 


With no certain prospect of the arrival of any vessel 
with supplies, the gravity of the situation bore heavily upon 
Portola, the comandante, upon whom, alone, rested the 
responsibility for the welfare of the personnel of the expe- 
dition, in so far as it was humanly possible to safeguard 
it under existing conditions. He therefore ordered an 
inventory of all stores then on hand, in order to ascertain 

[ 106 ] 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 107 


how long their stay might be prolonged without too great 
danger, while still waiting for codperation from the far-off 
base of supplies. After setting aside enough for rations 
on their retreat from San Diego, should no succor come 
to them and they, in consequence, be routed by danger of 
actual starvation from their lately acquired foothold in 
California, it was determined after careful calculation that, 
with rigid conservation, food enough remained to carry 
them through from that date, January 28, to the middle of 
March. 

Captain Rivera was detailed to return to Velicata and 
bring to San Diego the cattle left there at the time the 
expedition was on its way to Alta California, and was also 
instructed to gather up, besides, such supplies as he could. 
Even should the San Antonio and the San José both arrive 
with provisions, such things as he might be able to secure 
could be stored for future use. In the event of the non- 
arrival of at least one of these vessels and should with- 
drawal from San Diego become absolutely necessary before 
his return, then he would be met on his way north by the 
expedition on its way south. 

In a letter to the visitador, Don José de Galvez, dated 
February 8, 1770, Don Pedro Fages writes that “ ‘there are 
left 60 men to be fed, including 4 padres and 8 seamen 
with Vila.” From this force ‘28 men are to go to Velicata 
to lighten the burden on the commissary’ ”’ (Richman from 
Palou). On February 11, Rivera started on his mission 
to Baja California. 


In accounts of the various conferences, hot disputes are 
hinted at and there were still many differences of opinion 
as to the existence of the port of Monterey. A letter dated 
February 9, from Padre Juan Crespi to the visitador, says: 
“I am not at all chagrined that we failed to hit upon the 
port of Monte Rey; . . . and if in time we still fail of 

it, we possess of a certainty and as an actuality the Port 


108 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


of San Francisco.’’? Don Gaspar de Portola, in a letter 
dated February 11, to Viceroy de Croix, goes much further, 
writing as follows: “‘ “Io me there remains the consolation 
that by this expedition there has been lost nothing but our 
great labor in the six months and a half that it has con- 
sumed. Exploration has been carried to the very precincts 
of San Francisco. The spirit of the gentilidad has been 
tested. The infinity of the population of the Channel of 
Santa Barbara has been made known. ‘The illusion that 
Monterey exists has been dispelled’”’ (Richman). Portola 
might be convinced of the nonexistence, and Crespi doubt, 
but not so Serra, who, although he had not made the trip, 
was firmly convinced to the contrary. To him Monterey 
was no illusion but very much of a reality. 

While, after the departure of the Rivera contingent, 
there was less strain upon the commissary department, the 
middle of March was now approaching and provisions were 
very low. 

There can be no doubt that after the return of Portola 
from the north, the fate of “Ja santa expedicion” hung by 
a very thin thread, and that the crucial moment upon which 
that fate depended had now arrived. It is evident that the 
comandante was fully alive to his responsibilities and would 
remain until the last moment consistent with safety, but 
no longer. His duty was clear: to save those under him, 
even though it meant, as a last resort, the retreat of the 
entire expedition from Alta California; and an order was 
issued by him, naming March 20 as the date on which active 
preparations for immediate departure from San Diego were 
to begin, provided—and the word is used advisedly—pro- 
vided no supplies from anywhere arrived by that time. 

Very different, indeed, from the difficulties confronted 
by the comandante, who, soldier that he was, shouldered 
his responsibility in his own way, was the position in which 
the padre presidente found himself, with the departure of 
the expedition a possibility, involving, as it did, a condition 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 109 


which must be met by him alone! “It goes without saying” 
and is waste of words to say that the padre presidente met 
the situation uniquely confronting him equally as well as 
did the comandante—equally as well but no better—and in 
the only way it could have been consistently met by him, 
Serra: by announcing that should the entire expedition be 
forced to retire from Alta California, he would remain! 


The mission system—which drew the heathen into a fold 
and, in addition to Christianizing them, taught them trades 
and many other things,—was not the only method employed 
in spreading the faith; it was simply one method of spread- 
ing it. Both before and after this time, Spanish mission- 
aries, alone or by twos, sometimes went into the wilds and, 
living among the aborigines,—the reverse of the mission 
system,—made converts in that way. Had Serra remained 
alone and followed this course, and had he lost his life at 
the hands of the savages, he would have died as he longed 
to die and, as he believed, with eternal salvation his certain 
* reward—a martyr to the faith. ‘To hold the opportunity 
that now was his to save the souls of the heathen about 
him in such numbers, the work to which he had dedicated 
his life,—the realization of his great daydream,—no sac- 
rifice was too great for him to make. And, further, to him, 
it was clearly his duty to remain! Loyal, tried, and not 
‘found wanting,” Fray Juan Crespi declared that he, too, 
would stay in the field and help garner the sheaves for the 
Church. 


Says Hittell: “. . . Junipero next caused himself to be 
rowed out into the harbor to the San Carlos for the purpose 
of discussing the situation with Vicente Vila, its commander. 
He laid before that functionary the proposed abandonment 
and the causes which . . . induced the governor to con- 
template such action. .. . he proposed that Vila, instead 
of immediately sailing for home, should take Crespi and 


110 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


himself on board his vessel; run up the coast, and ascertain 
the truth as to the .. . filling up of the . . . port. Vila, 
interested as a navigator in the geographical question . . . 
agreed to the proposition; and Junipero returned to shore.” 

A novena—nine days of prayer—was begun, with the 
consent of the comandante. Prayers were the order of the 
day, prayers long and continuous with the friars, that the 
ships might arrive and the crisis be averted. And thus the 
matter stood. 

March 19 was the fiesta of San José, patron of the 
expedition, and special masses were celebrated. Still no 
sign of the long-looked-for vessels gladdened their eyes. 

March 20—that fateful day named by the comandante 
—was at hand. Late in the afternoon, in the light of the 
fading day, after sunset and before dusk, a sail was seen 
dimly outlined on the horizon! Straining their eyes, they 
saw it disappear in the northwest. 

Whether Gaspar de Portola beheld in the shadowy sail 
etched against the evening sky an omen for good and took 
heart of grace, who can say? But certain it is that with ° 
March 20 came no orders to break camp, nor on the next 
day, nor on the next after that. 

Portola and Serra, each as he saw his duty, had been 
to the fullest extent true to himself; but, as things turned 
out, there was to be no need of a parting of the ways, 
spiritual and temporal. For, on the twenty-third, a sail 
was again seen, coming from the opposite direction, and 
this time a turn was made and the vessel headed for the 
port. 

The crisis was averted and the expedition saved. The 
vessel was the San Antonio. 


The San Antonio, also often referred to as El Principe, 
had left San Diego eight months before, arriving at San 
Blas after a run of twenty days. Reports were then for- 
warded to the viceroy at Mexico City, and to the visitador, 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 111 


Don José de Galvez, who was at that time in the interior of 
Mexico, having left the Peninsula in May. Some time 
necessarily elapsed before replies were received, with orders 
to return to Alta California immediately after provisioning 
the ship, stowing the cargo, and procuring sailors. When 
all this had been accomplished, the return voyage was 
immediately begun. 

The commander, Don Juan Pérez, was instructed not 
to stop at San Diego, but to proceed direct to Monterey. 
Following orders, the San Antonio passed San Diego on 
March 19, and this fully accounts for the “‘miraculous sail” 
seen on that day. Running in shore, somewhere near Santa 
Barbara, to replenish the water casks, the Channel Indians 
informed them of the return southward of the Spaniards. 
This, with the loss of an anchor near Point Concepcion, 
decided Pérez to turn about, disregarding orders, and make 
for San Diego. 

The officers of the expedition were not filled with enthu- 
siasm over Alta California as a Spanish outpost, in its 
isolated position much too far from any base of supplies, 
and with the penalty that must be paid for its possession 
in suffering and death; yet there is no justifiable reason 
apparent in branding, for all time, the commander in chief 
with the stigma of even an inclination toward dereliction 
of duty, as has been attempted with Don Gaspar de Portola. 

More than insinuation, a covert accusation is read in Hit- 
tell’s History of California, as follows: ‘“The arrival of 
the San Antonio with sailors and provisions and the evi- 
dence thereby afforded of the care and promptitude of the 
visitador-general completely changed the plans of Governor 
Portola. He now plainly saw that the government was 
thoroughly in earnest in its intention of colonizing the coun- 
try and ready to furnish all the support necessary for 
carrying its purpose into effect. He also saw that the eyes 
of his superiors were upon him and that any neglect of 
duty or remissness in what might reasonably be expected 


112 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


of him would be dangerous. He therefore . . . deter- 
mined to retrace his steps . . . and immediately renew his 
search for Monterey.”’ 

Another little fling is taken at this doughty captain of 
dragoons of the regular army of Spain, who was not wear- 
ing his first spurs by any means, but had served with credit 
in Portugal and Italy, as well as in the “New World,” in 
Richman’s California under Spain and Mexico, which reads: 
‘“The coming of the San Antonio, falling as it did on the 
day of St. Joseph, was taken for a strong omen by Portola. 
It in fact quite roused his mind. Persuaded now that to 
fail in his undertaking would be disloyalty a Dios, al Rey, 
a mi ’onor [To God, to the King, to my honor], and 
remembering that on leaving the peninsula he had resolved 
‘to perform his commission or to die,’ he took counsel with 
Pérez, with the result that on April 16 the San Antonio 

. was dispatched up the coast... .” 

A fairer exposition of the situation—logical and without 
bias—is Dr. Chapman’s in The Founding of Spanish Cali- 
fornia. He says: “‘A story has sprung up that Portola 
might have abandoned Alta California but for Father Serra. 
The latter is said to have prevailed upon the commander 
to delay his departure, with the result that the San Antonio 
was sighted the very day before Portola planned to leave. 
If this is true, then Serra is to be credited with having saved 
the Alta California establishments in their first hour of 
need. It seems probable, however, that this is an injustice 
to Portola. There is no doubt that Serra wanted to stay, 
and that Portola was not enthusiastic over the new country, 
but the commander in chief was a soldier whose every action 
in 1769-70 seems to show an intention to carry out his 
orders and hold the country to the last moment compatible 
with the safety of the forces under his command. 

‘In any event, what Serra and Vila or Portola might 
have done is swallowed up in the fact that Portola did 
remain. In fine, there seems to be no just reason for 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 113 


depriving Portola of the credit that by common consent is 
assigned to the commander of an enterprise, unless there 
are circumstances which compel a different attribution. 
Serra and others played their parts with abundant courage 
—their fame is secure—but to Portola goes the credit for 
holding Alta California in 1770,—and indeed, the province 
was saved by a very narrow margin.” If it be a desire to 
add to the already ample and radiant glory of the padre 
presidente, Fray Junipero Serra, in claiming for him the 
prestige of saving, at this crucial time, all that had been 
won at such cost, then it is safe to say that he, Serra, in 
his humility, would have been the last to wish such a claim 
presented—even though it had been true. 


After the arrival of the San Antonio at San Diego, 
preparations had been actively begun to go again in search 
of Monterey, not only by land but by sea also, as originally 
planned by Don José de Galvez, with Point Pinos as the 
rendezvous for the two divisions. 

Should Monterey not be found, then a presidio and a 
mission were to be established elsewhere. With this in 
view, Captain Juan Pérez of the San Antonio, who was to 
have charge of the search by sea, was instructed to proceed 
first to the brazo de mar—the arm of the sea—discovered 
by Sergeant Ortega the previous November, which widened 
out into the great inland sea seen by the Portola party; and 
to make observations and surveys, before proceeding down 
the coast from there to Point Pinos. With him were to 
go Fray Junipero Serra, who had not been with the expedi- 
tion northward the year before; and Surgeon Prat, who, at 
the time of the first attempt to locate the evasive port, had 
remained at the camp at San Diego to care for the sick; 
and with him,, also, to make surveys, was Alférez Don 
Miguel Costanso of the first expedition. 

On April 16, the San Antonio sailed, and on the 17th, 
the land division began its march, led, as before, by Don 


114 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


Gaspar de Portola; and, as before, with him went Fray 
Juan Crespi, e/ teniente—lieutenant—Don Pedro Fages, 
with twelve of his Catalan Volunteers, seven regulars, five 
Christianized Indians, and two arrieros. 

Sergeant José Francisco Ortega, the scout of the first 
expedition northward from San Diego, was left in charge 
of the camp there, its personnel greatly diminished by the 
absence of Captain Rivera y Moncada, Padre Vizcaino, 
and many others on the mission to Velicata. With Ortega 
were Padres Parron and Gomez, eight soldiers, and twelve 
neophytes; while on board the San Carlos were Captain 
Vicente Vila, his piloto, and twelve sailors. 


The overland expedition up the coast reached Point 
Pinos on May 24. Crespi, Fages, and one soldier—some 
historians include Portola—hastened to the cross which 
had been erected, and found not only the cross but a strange 
array of articles about it: feathers, arrows stuck in the 
ground, meat, shellfish, and a string of sardines, deposited 
there by the Indians, who, observing the reverence in which 
it was held by the Spaniards, had made propitiatory offer- 
ings to their gods. 

As they looked out over the water, the bay seemed almost 
circular—almost like the letter O; whales were spouting 
quite close in shore, and near by, on the rocks and in the 
water, were many seals and sea lions. ‘The day was clear 
and the world about them took on a new meaning, for with 
one voice they exclaimed, ‘““This is the port of Monterey, 
which we seek; in form, exactly as described by Sebastian 
Vizcaino and Cabrera Bueno: ‘La grande ensenada . . . 
como una O. [The great roadstead .. . like an O.]’” 
The springs of fresh water were located; the great oak was 
identified, the tips of whose branches were washed by the 
sea, near which mass had been celebrated by the Carmelite 
friars, as described by Vizcaino. Notwithstanding the 
theories they themselves had advanced, there was no evi- 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 115 


dence that the port had been filled up by sand. In fact, with 
reorientation, there were apparently few changes since the 
discovery of el famoso puerto by Vizcaino, in 1603. 


A bay 

Like an O— 

For so 

Cabrera Bueno said 

Long, long ago; 

And wrote of trees 

Along the shore: 

Oaks 

Dipping low their branches 
In the sea; 

Pines, 

Growing so strong and free, 
Enough to mast the ships 
For all the world. 

And there they are to-day, 
With cypresses gnarled and twisted— 
Sisters to cedars of Lebanon 
Far away,— 

Wrapped all about 

With wisps of clinging fog, 
Indistinct, 

Mystic, 

Gray— 

El famoso puerto de Monte Rey. 


“(The delight aroused in all,’ Fr. Crespi writes, ‘at find- 
ing themselves at last in the long-sought Port of Monterey 
is not easy to express in words’”’ (Engelhardt). 

On May 31, the San Antonio dropped anchor in the bay, 
having encountered stormy weather after leaving San 
Diego, and having been driven as far south as latitude 30° 
and as far north as the Farallones. The mouth of the 


116 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


estero had been reached but not entered; consequently, no 
surveys had been made. From that point, the San Antonio 
put about and made the port of Monterey seven days after 
the arrival there of the division by land. 

To Serra, the port was at once and without doubt 
Vizcaino’s Monte Rey, and, without hesitation, he called 
it “Este hermoso puerto de Monterey [This fine port of 
Monterey ]’’ (Palou). 

Arrangements were now made to take formal possession 
in the name of ‘‘His Most Catholic Majesty, Don Carlos 
the Third, of Spain,” and to found the Presidio of Mon- 
terey as well as the mission to be established under the 
title of San Carlos de Borromeo with San José as its 
principal patron. To the full extent permitted by their 
resources, both ceremonies were to be invested with all 
the dignity the occasion merited, for this was a consumma- 
tion, a culmination of the effort on the part of Spain, since 
1542, never lost sight of despite a long period of seeming 
lethargy. 

Although ceremonies attendant upon the founding of 
this, Padre Presidente Serra’s own mission, were practi- 
cally the same as at all missions, a description in detail 
duly chronicled by his associate, Padre Crespi, is extant, 
and is as follows: ‘‘ ‘On the third day of June, 1770, Pen- 
tecost Sunday, when Commander Don Gaspar de Portola 
with his officers, subalterns, soldiers and the rest of the 
land expedition, Don Juan Pérez, captain of the packet- 
boat San Antonio, with his sub-captain, Don Miguel del 
Pino, the whole crew and the rest of the sea expedition, and 
the Rev. Fr. Lector and Presidente of all the missions, 
Fr. Junipero Serra, with Fr. Juan Crespi, had assembled 
on the shore of the Port of Monterey, an enramada [‘“‘a 
brushwood shelter” ] having been erected on the very spot 
and near the live-oak where in 1602 the Rev. Carmelite 
Fathers, who had come with the expedition of Comandante 
Sebastian Vizcaino, celebrated the holy Sacrifice of the Mass, 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 117 


the altar having been arranged and the bells suspended, the 
celebration began with the loud ringing of the bells. 

‘* “The said Fr. Presidente vested with alb and stole, all 
kneeling, then implored the assistance of the Holy Ghost 
(whose coming upon the small assembly of the apostles 
and disciples of the Lord the Universal Church celebrated 
that day), and sang the hymn of the day, the Veni Creator 
Spiritus. Thereupon he blessed water and with it the great 
cross, which had been constructed and which all helped to 
raise and place in position, and then venerated. He then 
sprinkled the whole surroundings and the shore with holy 
water in order to drive away all infernal enemies. There- 
upon High Mass was commenced at the altar upon which 
stood the image of Our Lady, which, through the inspector- 
general, the Most Rev. Francisco de Lorenzana, Archbishop 
of Mexico, had donated for the expedition to Monterey. 
This first holy Mass was sung by the said Fr. Presidente, 
who also preached after the Gospel, whilst repeated salutes 
from the cannons of the bark and volleys from the muskets 
and firearms supplied the lack of musical instruments. At 
the close of the holy Mass the Salve Regina was sung 
before the lovely statue of Our Lady, and then the whole 
ceremony concluded with the Te Deum Laudamus.’”’ ‘This 
last was at the express request of Don José de Galvez, 
who gave instructions that immediately after the formal 
occupation of Monterey, a report of the proceedings should 
be forwarded, and, wherever the glad tidings were received, 
the singing of Te Deum Laudamus was to be repeated. 

““*When this function of the Church was finished,’ the 
good Father continues, ‘the commander took formal pos- 
session . . . in the name of our King, Don Carlos III 
(whom God preserve), by raising anew the royal standard 
which had already been unfolded after the erection of the 
cross. Then followed the customary ceremonies of the 
uprooting of herbs, throwing of stones, and drawing up a 
record of all that had transpired.’”’ Later in the day, 


118 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


‘“**All the officers joined the Fathers in a repast on the 
bayshore, whilst the men of the land expedition and the 
crew of the ship enjoyed themselves similarly amid the 
salutes of the artillery and musketry. 

‘With this day, therefore, divine worship began here, 
and the famous Port of Monterey passed into the dominion 
and command of our king’”’ (Engelhardt). 


The Presidio of Monterey was the first established in 
Alta California, there being at San Diego only a garrison 
in connection with the mission. Monterey became the 
first capital, and remained the capital for many years. 

The formal record of these ceremonies began as follows: 
‘Don Gaspar de Portola, Captain of Dragoons of the 
Regiment of Spain, Governor of California and Com- 
mander-in-Chief of the Expedition to the ports of San 
Diego and Monterey, situated in thirty-three and thirty- 
seven degrees, in accordance with the Royal Decree: 

‘“ “By these presents be it known that in the Camp and 
Port of Monterey on the third day of the month of June 
of this year, in fulfillment of the orders which I bear from 
the Most Illustrious Senor Visitor General Don Joseph de 
Galvez of the Council and Cabinet of His Majesty in the 
Royal and Supreme Council of the Indies, . . .’”’ and 
very much more, announcing that orders had been carried 
out, and stating that “‘ ‘the triumphant standard of the Holy 
Cross’”’ had been set up; and referring to the ‘“ “Catholic, 
Christian and pious zeal of His Majesty . .'. known, far 
and wide, from the fact that his royal treasury is open for 
the purpose of gathering the evangelical harvest which is 
being undertaken .. .’” (ibid.). Of this, Engelhardt 
says in a note: “That was the general impression; but, as 
we have seen, the conquest was not undertaken for the sake 
of evangelizing the inhabitants, nor was the royal treasury 
‘open’ for that purpose to the extent of contributing one 
peso.” 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 119 


“By these presents,’ Spain was announcing to the world 
that she was now officially in possession of the northwest 
coast of the Californias, and was prepared to do battle 
in order to hold it ‘‘against all comers.” 

This report was entrusted to two volunteers, a soldier 
and a sailor, despatched on June 15, on horseback, to pro- 
ceed to Mexico by way of the Peninsula, and to spread the 
glad tidings as they went. Not far beyond San Diego, they 
met Rivera y Moncada, returning with cattle and provisions 
from Baja California, who detached five soldiers as an 
escort for them. On August 2, they reached Mission Todos 
Santos, near Cape San Lucas, at which latter place they 
were put on board a vessel and sent across the gulf. 

Portola had been given permission by the visitador, 
vested with viceregal authority, to return to Mexico when 
the object of the expedition had been attained. Monterey 
- having been located and both mission and presidio officially 
founded; temporary huts, a chapel, and a stockade built; 
and everything arranged for the best good and comfort 
of all, he formally turned over the command to Don Pedro 
Fages, who seems to have been practically, although unoff- 
cially, in command for some little time before this date. 
Accompanied by Don Miguel Costanso, he set sail on the 
San Antonio for San Blas, arriving on August 1, in advance 
of his own messengers despatched on June 15. Remaining 
at Tepic to rest, he at once sent a courier to the viceroy. 

On August 10, Croix received the report forwarded by 
Portola, announcing the occupation of Monterey. Bells 
of the great cathedral heralded forth the welcome news— 
certain bells never rung except upon occasions of joy and 
thanksgiving—and these chimes, a well-known signal, were 
answered, as was the custom, by the bells of all the other 
churches. 

For many months, the visitador had been ill at Alamos 
and at times near unto death. He was now at the capital 
and well enough to take part in the various ceremonies 


120 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


following the receipt of the good news, to share the glory 
and receive congratulations with Croix at the viceregal 
palace, and to be present at the solemn high mass attended 
by the entire viceregal court, ordered celebrated by the 
viceroy. Galvez, also, directed the printing of an account 
of the expedition for distribution throughout both new 
and old Spain. 

As a reward for his services, Portola was promoted to 
a lieutenant colonelcy, and later, in 1776, was made Goy- 
ernor of Puebla, New Spain. In 1784, at the age of sixty- 
one, he was retired with the rank of colonel, at which 
time he returned to Spain. 


Xx 


The San Carlos had been lying in the harbor of San 
Diego for some fifteen months, waiting for sailors, but, 
except for five left there because of sickness, was still with- 
out them. ‘The San Antonio, on the voyage south from 
Monterey, in July, with Portola and Costanso on board, 
had passed without stopping. Vila now determined to 
make up a crew as best he could, and did so, asking Rivera, 
who had returned from the Peninsula and was then at 
San Diego, to help him out by letting him have one of his 
soldiers and two vaqueros—cowboys—who happened to 
know something of the sea. With these three, his five 
sailors, and the pilotin, he manned his ship and sailed away 
some time in August. 

As the weather was propitious, the San Carlos arrived 
safely and in due time at San Blas, and, having received 
most excellent care during her long period of idleness, was 
in good condition and soon ready for sea again. Shortly 
after reaching port, the captain, Don Vicente Vila, fell sick 
and died. 


Before the founding of any of the Alta California mis- 
sions, the visitador, Don José de Galvez, had realized that 
San Diego, Monterey, and San Buenaventura, with the mis- 
sionaries assigned to them, would not for long meet the 
requirements of the new venture. More missions would 
be needed and more missionaries. He hoped that the fleet 
leaving Cadiz in November of the year before, 1768, would 
bring a reénforcement of Franciscans, and, in fact, forty- 
five friars were expected. 


[ 121 ] 


122 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


There can be no doubt that the welfare of these missions 
was very near his heart. He was constantly on the alert 
in regard to them and striving for their betterment. In 
June, 1769, he wrote from Alamos to “Guardian Fray Juan 
Andrés, to send to the Californias all the operarios possi- 
ble’? (Richman), and, while ill at the same place, writing 
to the viceroy, on August 22, that he did not expect to 
recover, urged him to aid and protect the new establish- 
ments. Forty-five friars, under Fray Rafael Verger as 
superior, did eventually arrive, but not until May, 1770. 


In a letter to the viceroy, received about six weeks after — 


the arrival of the friars under Verger, the padre presidente 
asks permission to remove Mission San Carlos to a more 
suitable location near El] Rio Carmelo, or elsewhere; and 
petitions that a chain of missions be established to facili- 
tate communication and the more rapid reduction of the 
natives; and, also, that more missionaries be sent, ‘well 
provided with vestments, sacred vessels, house furniture, 
and especially agricultural implements.” To the same 
effect, he importuned the Guardian of the College of San 
Fernando. ‘ 

The viceroy resolved to found the new missions: five in 
Baja and five in Alta California, besides San Buenaventura 
not as yet established. Those in Alta California were to 
be: San Gabriel Arcangel, San Antonio de Padua, San 
Luis Obispo de Tolosa, Santa Clara de Asis, and San Fran- 
cisco de Asis. ‘Two missionaries were to be assigned to 
each doctrina—mission, in this sense. For founding a mis- 
sion, one thousand pesos would be allowed; and to each 
missionary, four hundred pesos for traveling expenses and, 
as salary, two hundred and seventy-five per annum. Also, 
from that time on, missions would be founded and mission- 
aries paid out of the Pious Fund. Permission to remove 
Mission San Carlos to Carmelo, or elsewhere, was granted. 
Letters notifying Serra, from viceroy and visitador, are 
dated November 12, 1770. Attention was called to a 


ee a ee ee ee 


a ee ee ae ee ee a eT 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 123 


“sumptuous” and complete set of vestments to be sent for 
that mission, the gift of the viceroy. 

A story, unexpectedly bizarre in such a connection, might 
be woven about the management and mismanagement of 
contributions for a definite purpose, found convenient to 
dip into when money was needed, designated as the “Pious 
Fund.” It would be an interesting, almost a thrilling, tale. 
But, for the present purpose, a clear and succinct résumé 
is sufficient, and is found in the report of Jackson H. Ral- 
ston, agent for the United States in the matter of the Pious 
Fund, before the Hague Tribunal, as follows: ‘As early 
as the year 1697 certain members of the Order of Jesus, 
with the permission of the King of Spain and upon condi- 
tion that they should not have power to draw against or 
from the royal revenues for such purpose, undertook the 
conversion of the Indians of the Californias, and to effect 
this end collected considerable sums of money and entered 
upon their work. From time to time large contributions 
were made to assist in the development of the missions 
established or designed to be established by them or by 
their successors, the total of such contributions down to the 
year 1731, reaching $120,000. In 1735 properties valued 
at about $40,000 were deeded for the same purpose, and 
in 1747 an additional contribution, finally amounting to the 
sum of $120,000 was made. Later, and about the year 
1784, some $400,000 reached the fund from another source. 

‘These moneys, to which were added various smaller 
contributions from time to time from other sources, con- 
stituted what became known as ‘The Pious Fund of the 
Californias,’ which, during the earlier portion of its exist- 
ence, was entirely managed and controlled by the Order of 
Jesus. Later, and upon the expulsion of the Order from 
the dominions of the King of Spain, that monarch acted 
Pamtanstec ess). ;” 


Missionaries for the Californias left the College of San 


124 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


Fernando, in October, 1770, for Tepic, there to await the 
sailing of vessels for their destinations. Both the San 
Carlos and the San Antonio were at that time at San Blas, 
but it was not until January that they set sail, the San 
Antonio bound for Alta California with the friars for the 
new missions on board, and carrying a cargo of provisions 
and other necessities. The letters of notification to Serra, 
mentioned as under date of the previous November 12, and 
instructions for Fages were despatched by this boat. 
Another important item was the set of precious vestments, 
the gift of the viceroy. And—there were others not so 
“sumptuous” but with a history: vestments collected from 
church and sacristry at the time of the deportation of the 
Jesuits and the confiscation of all their possessions. Some 
of these Don José de Galvez caused to be boxed up and 
sent to help out his beloved missions on the far-away 
northwest coast. They now appear for the first time, so 
far as we are concerned. We are making their acquaint- 
ance. But they reappear, for they became quite conspicuous 
in the annals of the day—not to say notorious—because, 
mayhap, of something they should have been but were not. 

Departing for the short voyage across the gulf on board 
the San Carlos, were the friars for Baja California. What 
happened is nothing short of tragic, but is, also, another 
story. 

Sailing on January 20, 1771, from San Blas, the San 
Antonio dropped anchor in the harbor of San Diego on 
March 12; freight billed for that port was unloaded and, 
on April 14, she proceeded on her way. One change in 
personnel had been made: Finding both missionaries at 
San Diego suffering with scurvy, one of the new arrivals, 
Padre Dumetz, was left there temporarily with Padre Par- 
ron; the other, Padre Gomez, going in his place to Mon- 
terey. Owing to contrary winds, the San Antonio was not 
able to make that port until the 21st of May. 

The arrival of such a delegation of coworkers was a 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 125 


most agreeable surprise to Serra and Crespi; but many new 
arrangements had now to be made in consequence. 

The fiesta of Corpus Christi was at hand, and Serra 
determined to keep every one at Monterey until after that 
date, May 30, that the day might be observed fittingly 
with appropriate ceremonies and with all the splendor made 
possible by the presence of so many clericals. ‘The fiesta 
was also that of San Fernando, the patron saint of their 
college, and on the great day “A solemn High Mass with 
deacon and sub-deacon was sung and a sermon preached’’— 
probably by the padre presidente, but we have no data to 
that effect. “The procession with the Blessed Sacrament 
was then held in the open air’ (Engelhardt). When the 
ceremonies were concluded, the padre presidente assigned 
the missionaries to their future stations: to San Diego, San 
Buenaventura, San Gabriel, San Antonio, San Luis Obispo, 
and San Carlos,—but, of these, only San Diego and San 
Carlos existed. This was, indeed, a very wonderful day 
for Serra. 

On June 7, the San Antonio got under way for the return 
trip to San Blas, having on board as far as San Diego, 
where she arrived June 14, the military commander of 
Alta California, Lieutenant Don Pedro Fages, going south 
on a tour of inspection and to arrange for the founding 
of the new missions there; and, also, the five friars assigned 
to Missions San Diego, San Gabriel, and San Buenaventura; 
and, from there on, Padre Francisco Gomez, invalided 
home, to the Collége of San Fernando at Mexico City. 
Padre Parron, the other friar with scurvy, had gone to 
Baja California, and Padre Dumetz, assigned to San Diego, 
was, as we know, already there. 

Instructions issued by the viceroy on the same date as 
the notification to the padre presidente, November 12, 1770, 
to Don Pedro Fages, and received by him upon the arrival 
of the San Antonio at Monterey, on May 21, are, in part, 
as follows: ‘‘ ‘In order that the founding of the new mis- 


126 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


sions on the coast may not be delayed, the packet El 
Principe [the San Antonio] brings ten Fathers, abundant 
supplies, farm implements and other useful articles, as you 
will see from the invoice which the comisario at San Blas 

. must forward and give to Don Juan Perez [com- 
manding the San Antonio]. You will distribute the sup- 
plies in orderly proportion between the presidio and the 
Missionary Fathers . . . also the field implements and 
carpenter tools which may not be needed at the presidio 

You will also assign of the cattle and mules, which 
Hees been brought up from Velicata, a certain number to 
the Fathers. Two boxes of medicines also go along in the 
San Antonio for Dr. Prat who is to give a part of them 
to the Fathers, whose missions are not in the vicinity of the 
presidio, with necessary instructions for using them. 

‘Tf on receipt of this it has not been done, you will 
make preparations to establish Mission San Carlos on the 
banks of the Rio Carmelo, and you will station there a 
sufficient guard of soldiers. You will observe the same 
arrangements with regard to other missions which are to 
be founded along the coast to San Diego . . . I this day 
give the necessary orders so that you may obtain the 
soldiers whom Captain Rivera is bringing up from Loreto. 

“With this understanding the . . . missionaries are 
sent. Eight of them are necessary to found four Doctrinas 

Then, as soon as possible, you will by land and by 
sea, examine the Port of San Francisco, situated much to the 
north of Monterey . . . to the end that a mission may be 
established there, so that the said important locality may 
not be exposed to foreign occupation.’”’ Of that clause, 
in a note, Engelhardt has this to say: “Here the real pur- 
pose for the hasty founding of the missions crops out, as 
far as the government was concerned.” 

The instructions further read: ‘‘‘I herewith charge you 
very particularly to proceed to establish said missions with- 
out the least delay as an object demanding your first atten- 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 127 


tion. In order that you may execute this with punctuality, 
I direct the captain at Guaymas to send you twelve soldiers 
to replace those who have died on the voyage.’ ” 


During the previous year, the padre presidente had 
looked about for a better location for Mission San Carlos 
farther away from the Presidio of Monterey, experience 
in Texas, Baja California, and elsewhere having taught 
that the vicinity of a presidio was always detrimental to 
the work of a mission; that the too close proximity of 
soldiers led to immorality and the spread of disease among 
the natives; and that their frequent misconduct toward the 
wives of the Indians infuriated their men, not only leading 
to bloodshed, but thereby greatly retarding the work of 
the friars. It was also desirable to locate the mission 
where the soil would be better adapted to agriculture, the 
planting of orchards, and where the necessary irrigation 
would be possible. He had found an ideal spot across the 
little peninsula on the banks of the Rio Carmelo, sur- 
rounded by forests of pine and cypress, where there was 
enough flat land to make irrigation practicable, with ample 
space for the mission buildings, above a small lake and the 
never failing rio discharging its waters into the ocean south 
of Point Pinos. In his letter to the viceroy, asking per- 
mission to remove Mission San Carlos from Monterey, he 
had suggested this place as suitable. Permission having 
been received, as well as instructions to the comandante in 
regard to it, it was now possible for him to carry out the 
idea. Two days after the San Antonio had sailed on her 
return trip south, therefore, on June 9, 1771, he set out 
for the new site, taking with him several sailors and four 
Baja California Indians who were to fell trees and prepare 
timber for the proposed buildings, with a few soldiers to 
guard them while there. After carefully instructing them, 
Serra returned to Monterey. 

Following the founding of the Royal Presidio of Mon- 


128 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


terey and Mission San Carlos de Borromeo in the preced- 
ing year, no Indians came about, having been terrorized by 
the noise of the firing of cannon and discharge of musketry. 
The little chapel, consecrated on June 14, 1770, had no 
native congregation for a long time, but their timidity was 
at length overcome by a compelling curiosity and the lure 
of trinkets dear to the Indian; nevertheless, it was six 
months or more after that time that the first baptism took 
place. 

Upon his return from Carmelo, the padre presidente 
began to make ready for a journey to a region new to him, 
some fifteen miles inland, where, in the heart of the Santa 
Lucia Mountains, lay a beautiful little valley with a stream 
flowing through it down to the Salinas River, where the 
land was rich and so well wooded that a large Indian 
population throve on the abundant seeds, nuts, and acorns. 
Two years before, it had so impressed the Portola expedi- 
tion with its entire adaptability to mission purposes, that 
it had been selected as the site for one of the five new ones: 
San Antonio de Padua. 

Early in July, Serra set out, taking with him the two new 
friars, Miguel Pieras and Buenaventura Sitjar, who were 
to be left in charge; a corporal and six soldiers, who were 
to remain as the mission guard; three sailors, some Baja 
California neophytes, and a pack train loaded with pro- 
visions and goods for the mission. Following the trail as 
best they could, they finally found themselves in a valley, 
which they named Los Robles—The Oaks; and there they 
camped beside a stream, called by the padre presidente El 
Rio San Antonio. 

A bell was unpacked and swung from a stout branch of 
a great oak. Engelhardt tells us that Serra ‘“‘suddenly rang 
the bell and exclaimed in a loud voice: ‘Oh! ye gentiles! 
Come, come to the holy Church! Come, come to receive 
the faith of Jesus Christ!’ Amazed at this strange action 
of their superior, Fr. Miguel said to him, “Why, Father, 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 129 


do you tire yourself? ‘This is not the spot on which the 
church is to be built; nor is there a gentile in the whole 
vicinity. It is useless to ring the bell!’ ‘Father,’ the Fr. 
Presidente pleaded, ‘let me give vent to my heart which 
desires that this bell might be heard all over the world, 
or at least by the heathens that live in this sierra!’ ”’ 

On July 14, two years to a day from the time the expe- 
dicion santa had marched northward from San Diego, Mis- © 
sion San Antonio de Padua was founded with the usual 
ceremonies. After the great cross was raised and while 
he was preaching, Serra saw an Indian among his small 
congregation, who had doubtless been attracted by the 
vigorous bell ringing. Fray Junipero seized upon his pres- 
ence as a sign, and called attention to it, saying: “‘. . . we 
see, what was not observed at the founding of the missions 
ae far established, that at the first holy Mass the first- 
fruit from paganism has assisted’”’ (Engelhardt). He 
gave the Indian some little presents, hoping to draw him 
back to the mission and others with him. The desired 
effect was brought about, for the natives came in crowds, 
bringing wild fruits, nuts, and acorns to exchange for glass 
beads and other trifles. Serra remained fifteen days with 
the isolated little group, advising the friars as to their 
manner of dealing with the Indians, and instructing them 
in the management of the temporal affairs of the mission, 
during which time the usual buildings and stockade had been 
constructed. He then returned to Monterey. 

The indefatigable padre presidente was now most anxious 
to found Mission San Luis Obispo; but, lacking the neces- 
sary soldiers, he was obliged to control his impatience and 
await the return of the comandante from the south. Never- 
theless, as one may well imagine, he was very far from idle, 
and betook himself to Carmelo to speed up the work there. 
Felling trees, preparing timber, and leveling the ground 
took time, and dragged along until December of that year, 
when, after the mission chapel, a dwelling for the friars, 


130 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


storehouse, barracks, and a corral had been built, and an 
estacada, now considered essential for safety, thrown 
around them, Fray Junipero Serra and Fray Juan Crespi, 
and with them the two friars assigned to the not as yet 
established Mission San Luis Obispo, escorted by the mis- 
sion guard of five soldiers, left the port of Monterey, and 
took up their abode there. The name of Mission San 
Carlos de Borromeo was not changed at all; the mission 
was simply moved from one locality to another. It was 
often called “‘Mission Carmelo,” but was officially Mission 
San Carlos; and the buildings and little chapel at the port, 
Presidio de Monterey or merely Monterey. 

On the same day that Mission San Antonio de Padua 
was founded, July 14, e] comandante, Don Pedro Fages, 
with the friars for the new missions in the south, arrived 
at San Diego. Friars taking the place at that mission of 
the two afflicted with scurvy were Luis Jaime and Francisco 
Dumetz. It had been agreed that Mission San Gabriel 
Arcangel was to be established on the Rio de los Temblores, 
and Mission San Buenaventura at Asuncion, near the first 
Indian town on the Santa Barbara Channel. 

Soldiers that had been promised Fages arrived on July 
18: twenty soldiers besides five vaqueros and sixty mules. 
In a letter of that date to Viceroy Croix, he writes: ‘* ‘All 
this will help me to found the two missions of San Gabriel 
and San Buenaventura. I shall immediately proceed to 
carry out the resolution, and shall leave at each a propor- 
tionate number of cattle and mules, and put each mission 
in a good state of defense.’”” ‘““The best laid plans. . . 
gang aft agley,” and, just as all arrangements were com- 
plete, trouble began and developed into a serious hindrance 
to the whole undertaking, for, on July 22, nine soldiers and 
an arriero deserted, taking with them fifty horses, heading 
for Sonora. They were followed by a detail of soldiers 
and, at the request of Fages, Padre Paterna, with author- 
ity to offer the fugitives full pardon upon their return, 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 131 


went with them. On August 6, five soldiers and a corporal 
uncermoniously took their leave, taking forty-five horses, 
and staging their desertion for the very day set for the 
departure of the party with guards and paraphernalia to 
found the two missions. ‘The first group returned, later, 
but disappeared again, taking some cattle with them; the 
second group came back on the 24th, stole some cattle, and 
departed. This progressive game of hide and seek so 
enraged Fages that, taking Padre Dumetz with him, he 
went after them himself and with success, for all the 
deserters returned. 


In the meantime, on August 6, the two friars assigned 
to Mission San Gabriel, Angel Somera and Benito Cambon, 
began the journey northward, but without Don Pedro 
Fages, whose hands were more than full at that time. They 
were under escort of ten soldiers, and were accompanied 
by a pack train with provisions and mission accessories, 
in charge of four arrieros and a special guard of four more 
soldiers. Near the Rio de los Temblores, the wayfarers 
were surrounded by a large band of Indians, seemingly 
bent on attacking them. Engelhardt, taking the story from 
Palou, says: ‘‘. . . not knowing what else to do, one of 
the friars unfurled a banner, which on one side showed a 
picture of Our Lady of Sorrows, and held it up to the 
gaze of the howling Indians. No sooner had the gentiles 
set their eyes on the image of the Blessed Virgin than 
they threw down their bows and arrows. Two chiefs took 
from their necks the strings of beads which they wore, and 
in token of submission placed them at the foot of the 
picture. The Indians from all the neighboring rancherias, 
men, women and children, then flocked together offering 
seeds which they laid before the picture, while they gazed 
in wonder and delight at the holy Virgin.” 

They encamped and made surveys, but finding the place 
unsuitable, a site was chosen some six leagues farther on, 


1382 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


and the mission founded on September 8, 1771, above an 
arroyo through which ran a stream of clear, cool water, 
enough, even in midsummer, for irrigation, bordered with 
cottonwoods, willows, and other trees, from whose branches 
grapevines hung in festoons. There were “‘roses of Castile” 
in profusion and a riot of blackberry vines laden with lus- 
ciousness. Not more than seven leagues distant, sierras 
rose high above valley and mesa. Within half a league 
was a fine forest of oaks. Is it matter for wonder to us 
of this day, who are held spellbound by the ravishing 
beauty of the landscape, that here in this wonderful valley, 
Mission San Gabriel Arcangel was established ? 

Huts of palisades, thatched with tules—rushes—were 
built and the indispensable stockade, and in this work the 
Indians willingly lent a hand. This greatly encouraged the 
padres, who felt that here, at least, conversion of the 
heathen would not be so difficult as at San Diego. But 
the misconduct of one soldier toward the wife of a chief 
destroyed this golden opportunity, and laid the foundation 
for ill feeling and distrust of all the soldiers. Thus, many 
difficulties were added to the work of the missionaries, 
and the direct result, although this was not understood 
at the time, was what came about on October 10, when 
two soldiers, guarding horses some distance away, were 
attacked by a number of Indians. It was so unexpected 
and so sudden that the soldiers had no time to put on 
their cueras, but managed to protect themselves from the 
arrows with their rawhide shields. One soldier was the 
special target, and one Indian was bolder in his attack than 
the rest. Driven to extremities, this soldier fired on the 
Indian and killed him. Being their first experience with 
the deadly effect of firearms, the Indians turned and fled. 
Hearing the noise, other soldiers arrived upon the scene. 
The corporal ordered that the head of the dead Indian 
should be severed from the body and mounted on a pole 
as a warning. 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 133 


When the matter was investigated, it appeared that 
the soldier evidently selected for a special assault was the 
one who had attacked the wife of the chief, and that the 
Indian bolder than the rest, who had been killed by the 
soldier, was that chief. But this was only the beginning 
of much trouble of a like character: the constant misbe- 
having of the soldiers toward the Indian women, and the 
natural desire of their men to mete out to them their richly 
deserved punishment. Many disagreeable consequences 
followed this unfortunate incident. 

A few days later, the comandante arrived from San 
Diego with two friars and the guard for the contemplated 
missions, which had been augmented by the arrival of 
twelve more soldiers from Loreto. When Fages heard 
of the seemingly unprovoked attack, he increased the guard 
at San Gabriel. With the new outlook and the experience 
at San Diego, the soldiers he now had did not seem a suf- 
ficient number to warrant the founding of San Buenaven- 
tura; consequently, the two friars and everything provided 
for that mission must remain at San Gabriel, pending a 
time more opportune, which did not arrive for twelve years 
thereafter. 

The two friars in charge of San Gabriel, becoming too 
ill to attend to their duties, were permitted to return to 
the Peninsula; while those who had been en route to San 
Buenaventura—Paterna and Cruzada—remained and took 
their places. Eventually, they were able to restore the 
confidence of the natives; and it appears that when a few 
children were presented for baptism, among the first was 
the child of the Indian killed in the manner just related. 
(Drawn, and where quoted, Engelhardt, from Palou.) 

Going on northward and arriving at Monterey, Fages 
visited the padre presidente and told him of the various 
troublesome occurrences in the south. It was all very dis- 
turbing to Serra, but that the mission not founded should 
have been the “intermediate mission” was especially so. 


134 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


He now asked that Mission San Luis Obispo be established, 
and, indeed, his heart was quite set on it, but it was 
entirely out of the question as there were no soldiers to 
safeguard it. He then proposed to Fages that explora- 
tions and surveys for a site for Mission San Francisco 
de Asis be begun. This was directly in line with the vice- 
roy’s orders, and the comandante agreed, with the under- 
standing that nothing was to be done until after the rainy 
season, promising that he, himself, would go, provided 
Padre Juan Crespi would accompany him. 

True to his word to Serra, and at the same time carrying 
out orders, as soon as it was practicable in the spring, the 
expedition marched. 

Crespi’s account of the departure from the Presidio of 
Monterey begins in this wise: ‘‘ ‘With the help of God, 
we, Captain Pedro Fages and I, on Friday, March 2oth, 
1772, set out from the presidio of San Carlos de Monterey, 
at half-past ten in the morning, determined to survey the 
port of our Father St. Francis for the purpose of finding 
a convenient site for the mission which is to be erected 
there.’’’ ‘The diaries of Fages and Crespi do not agree 
as to the exact make-up of the expedition, or in other non- 
essentials. Fages says they were accompanied by fourteen 
soldiers and a Christianized Indian; Crespi, twelve, and he 
mentions an arriero and pack train. After a march of 
about four hours, according to Crespi, and four leagues, as 
given by Fages, and crossing with great difficulty the Rio 
de Monterey—the Salinas—then in spring flood, camp 
was made where the Portola party had halted on October 
TyL769; 

Proceeding, they took a course a little to the north of 
the present town of Gilroy, passing on through the beau- 
tiful and extensive valley beyond, which Crespi found very 
suitable for a mission; and, in fact, later, Mission Santa 
Clara was established there. From there, they passed on 
around the southern point of the bay, then northward, on 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 135 


the eastern side, passing a creek, and through what is now 
the site of the town of Alameda, “‘a peninsula covered with 
oaks”; then through what is East Oakland, across a plain 
from which they could see the ocean (evidently from Berke- 
ley) directly through the brazo de mar which had turned 
back Ortega in 1769. No natives had been seen for several 
days, but, five leagues farther on, they came upon a rancherta 
of Indians different from any they had seen: their skins 
were fairer and the men were bearded. 

They then passed around San Pablo Bay—described as 
a round bay like a lake, large enough for all the ships of 
Spain, with very deep water, for four whales were seen— 
and on around the Martinez Peninsula. Turning, north 
of the Contra Costa Mountains, and coming upon an estero 
penetrating the land (the Strait of Carquinez), which 
they could not cross, they continued as far, perhaps, as 
Antioch, where, from a slight elevation, two great rivers 
were observed. Going no farther in the direction of the 
far distant sierras, they bent their steps through a pass 
toward their own line of march northward; and, returning, 
passed nearer the southern point of the bay. At times, on 
this march, they had been fairly tortured by mosquitoes, 
which they said were ‘“‘worse than at San Blas.”’ ‘The return 
was shortened by about fourteen leagues and, on April 5, 
they were again at the Presidio of Monterey. 

The eastern side of the great inland sea, already partially 
explored by Ortega in 1769, had been explored in an 
attempt to carry out the orders of the viceroy, but the 
port of San Francisco had not been examined, nor had the 
principal object of the expedition been attained. 


Upon his return to Monterey, a matter which had to 
receive immediate attention was laid before the comandante. 
News had been received by Serra that Mission San Diego 
was in dire distress for want of food, and that Padre 
Dumetz had gone to Baja California, hoping to secure 


136 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


provisions. ‘Thereupon, a relief train of pack mules was 
loaded and sent on its way to San Diego, on April 13. 
Although but just returned from the strenuous march of 
eighteen days with the comandante, Padre Juan Crespi, 
ever “the man of the hour,” went along in order to bear 
Padre Jaime company during the absence of Dumetz. On 
the way down, he found the friars at Mission San Gabriel, 
‘for want of victuals, had already ‘tightened their cords.’ 
Arriving at San Diego he learned that for a long time the 
two Fathers had been subsisting on half a pint of corn, 
twenty ounces of flour and a little milk each day” (Engel- 
hardt, note). 

Soon food began to run short at Monterey as well, and 
a party was organized by Don Pedro Fages to go to 
Canada de los Osos, some fifty leagues to the south, and 
hunt bears, in such numbers thereabouts. In this way, meat 
was secured for presidio and mission. In a communication 
to Croix, June 26, 1772, Fages wrote that provisions would 
not hold out two months; and, under date of June 27, 
acknowledged the receipt of his royal appointment to a 
captaincy. 

In a letter to Fray Francisco Palou, in charge of the 
Peninsula missions, Fray Junipero Serra tells him: “ “The 
principal supporters of our people are the heathen Indians. 
Through them we live as God wills, though the milk from 
the cows and some vegetables from the garden have been 
the chief means of subsistence . . . but both sources are 
becoming scanty. 

S Gio aiberatis ati a number of Christians. . . 
Although some think that from gentle lambs, which sey 
appear to be, they may some, day turn tigers and lions, 
which may indeed happen if God permits; yet among those 
of Monterey we have already an experience of three years, 
and of two years among those of San Antonio, and every 
aay ache grow better. 

‘, . . In countries like this, where neither an interpreter 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 137 


nor a teacher can be procured for the study of the language, 
some time must pass by until one of the natives has learned 
the Spanish language. At San Diego time has already over- 
come this drawback. They already baptize grown people 
and celebrate marriages’’’ (Engelhardt). Serra felt very 
keenly his inability to master the language of the aborigines 
about him, and felt that this must be because of some of 
his own sins. Had they been able to talk with the natives, 
many things might have gone better; but Fray Junipero 
felt that had that been possible, all, by this time, would 
have become Christians. 


News brought to Monterey, in August, 1772, by a 
courier, threw both presidio and mission into a state of 
consternation. The San Carlos, under command of Vila’s 
former piloto, Miguel Pino, and the San Antonio, under 
Juan Pérez, had arrived at San Diego earlier in the month. 
Contrary to expectations and, perhaps, orders, both cap- 
tains had determined to discharge their entire cargoes there. 
The San Antonio had endeavored to make the port of 
Monterey but, owing to contrary winds, had failed, and 
the captain was not inclined to make a second attempt. 

Fages was about to start for the south, and Serra decided 
to take advantage of this opportunity to go, also, and to 
found Mission San Luis Obispo on the way. With them 
were Fray José Cavaller, two Baja California neophytes, 
as many soldiers as could be spared, arrieros, and a pack 
train. On the march south, Mission San Antonio was 
visited and inspected. ‘The location of the new mission 
having been previously determined upon, they directed their 
course toward La Canada de los Osos; there, a site with a 
fine view, as was their custom where possible, was chosen, 
only about three leagues from the sea, and, on September 1, 
1772, Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa was _ hastily 
founded. The next day, Fages and Serra hurried away, 
leaving the two neophytes, a corporal, and four soldiers, 


138 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


with Padre Cavaller in charge. Supplies left this forlorn 
little group were, exactly, fifty pounds of flour, some choc- 
olate, three almudas—pecks—of wheat for sowing, and a 
box of brown sugar to barter with the Indians for nuts 
and seeds. 

It is interesting to note that, later, at this mission, the 
use of tiles for roofing was first adopted in California, 
replacing the inflammable thatch theretofore in use, after 
the mission had been three times set on fire, the first time 
by a burning arrow shot with that intent by an Indian. No 
one had previous knowledge of tile-making, but the process 
was worked out, somehow. ‘The cylinders of hard burnt 
clay that resulted were, thereafter, used with a delightfully 
artistic effect for roofing all mission buildings. 


This was Padre Presidente Serra’s first overland journey 
along the coast north of San Diego, his first sight of the 
innumerable Indian villages dotted along the entire length 
of the Santa Barbara Channel, and the valley reached on 
the 11th was new to him, where, under the lofty sierras, 
nestled Mission San Gabriel. He was enthusiastic over the 
location and satisfied with what had been accomplished 
during the year. The comandante was on the march again 
on the 13th, and on September 16 (1772), the party 
arrived at San Diego, from which place Serra had been 
absent two years and five months. 


XI 


At San Diego, it was found that not only were the San 
Carlos and San Antonio in port, but that Padre Dumetz, 
accompanied by a new friar, Tomas de la Pena, had 
returned from the Peninsula with provisions and a flock of 
sheep. 

Supplies were sent north, overland, to relieve the situa- 
tion at the missions along the road. Crespi and Dumetz 
departed for Monterey to release the two friars for Mis- 
sions San Antonio and San Luis Obispo, who were on 
detached service at Mission San Carlos. 

Don Juan Pérez, captain of the San Antonio, after so 
many trying experiences bravely met in the past, had evi- 
dently decided that, for the nonce, he had had quite enough 
of the contrary winds that had baffled his approach to Mon- 
terey the preceding month, and would therefore unload his 
entire cargo for the northern missions at San Diego, from 
there to be sent by pack train overland—an idea absolutely 
impractical. ‘This, it would seem, must have been eventu- 
ally made clear to him. Whether it was or not, he put 
to sea on the 27th, bound for Monterey. In his Vida, 
Palou says this change of heart on the part of Captain 
Pérez was due to Serra’s prompting; but in his Noticias, 
he says Fages did the persuading; so, perhaps, both urged, 
each in his own way. Serra begged him to trust in God 
and not to fear the winds. What Fages said to him does 
not appear—and it may be just as well! 

The utter absurdity of unloading, at San Diego, goods 
brought by the San Antonio consigned to Monterey, and 
sending them by pack train overland to the northern port, 
does not seem to have impressed those in authority at 
Mexico City, for, later, under date of December 2 of that 


[ 139 ] 


140 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


same year, 1772, Don Pedro Fages was reprimanded for 
not having done so. 

Deeming the time now ripe for founding the “new 
missions’ and San Buenaventura, the padre presidente 
approached the comandante on the subject, but Fages was 
adamantine in his refusal. 

As the matter of the inadvisability of the rapid found- 
ing of missions is gone into fully in another connection— 
not, however, in reference to the controversy between Serra 
and Fages,—that point need be but briefly touched upon 
here. Says Richman: “As early as August, 1770, Serra 
had been advised by Matias de Armona (successor to Por- 
tola as Governor of the Californias) that the ‘vehement 
desire’ of his Reverence to establish missions additional 
to those of San Diego and Monterey was, in the dearth of 
troops, nothing less than a tentacion del demonio [tempta- 
tion of the evil one].”’ It would seem that Fray Junipero 
was, at all times, very urgent in the matter of founding 
new missions, in the face of everything and against the 
advice of every one familiar with conditions surrounding 
the new ventures. When importuned by Serra to establish 
Mission San Francisco, Fages had refused. ‘This had so 
disturbed the padre presidente that he had written a long 
letter to the viceroy, setting forth his complaints against 
Fages. It is true that ‘five new missions” and San Buena- 
ventura had been ordered established by the visitador, Don 
José de Galvez, and Viceroy de Croix. As to the mission 
to be established on the Estero de San Francisco, Fages 
had written to the viceroy, stating that it was impossible 
to found Mission San Francisco at that time, and would 
be impossible until more soldiers were available. 

The. seeming docility of the Indians, due sometimes 
simply to fear, was not always to be trusted. Not even 
short journeys were attempted without an armed force. 
Hostile demonstrations, even between San Diego and San 


ae Oe ee a 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 141 


Gabriel, were frequent. Farther up the coast, a party 
under the comandante himself had been stoned by the 
Indians, until, finally, in order to put an end to it, two 
or three had to be killed. This was likely to happen to 
any small party and was not in the least unusual. ‘Troops 
were absolutely necessary for every new venture; and, at 
this juncture, there was the same ‘“‘dearth of troops” men- 
tioned by Matias de Armona. 

While three of the “five new missions” had now been 

established according to orders, the “intermediate mission” 
of the original group had not, and Fages still flatly refused 
to do so, being in no mood to establish new missions with- 
out the requisite number of soldiers to safeguard them— 
especially not that mission, where the situation was vastly 
more menacing! After the affair with the Indians at San 
Gabriel, on October 10 of the preceding year, 1771, fur- 
nishings for the “intermediate mission,” then en route to 
the Santa Barbara Channel coast, overland, were stored; 
and Fages had proceeded no further in the matter of found- 
ing Mission San Buenaventura. Conditions there were the 
same as those fully set forth by Chapman, who says, refer- 
ring to a later period: “. . . the Indians were numerous 
and very different from the others in the province. 
They were well disposed towards the Spaniards, but war- 
like with one another, an almost continuous state of war 
existing between the villages. They were too bold, how- 
ever, for the Spaniards to count safely on their seeming 
affability and lack of good weapons. In fine, they were 
barbarians, and therefore capable of committing any kind 
of hostile act, if it should strike their fancy.” 

It may be that the manner of the repeated refusals on 
the part of the comandante was not always all it should 
have been, for, included in instructions received by him, 
either before or shortly after this time, is the following: 
““T charge Your Honor very strictly to preserve harmony 
with the Missionary Fathers... . Likewise I charge 


142 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


Your Honor that you do all you easily can in order to keep 
the missionaries in the tranquillity which they desire, 
listening with affability and dignity to the complaints of one 
and all, and assisting them with whatever is necessary in 
order that the sovereign intentions of His Majesty may be 
realized’”’ (Engelhardt). It is evident that Serra was 
importunate and unreasonable in the extreme; on the other 
hand, Fages was not carrying out instructions in regard to 
new missions. Fages, without doubt, had ‘the courage of 
his convictions.” May it not have been one of the unusual 
instances, where to disobey orders is more commendable, 
and requires more courage, than to execute them? 


In the plan of Spanish conquest, where Church and State 
went hand in hand, there had never been an official policy 
formulated as to which should control where matters 
spiritual and temporal met. It had simply been the custom 
to give way to the clericals, to allow them to control not 
only in spiritual affairs, but, to a great extent, sometimes 
in affairs purely temporal, where the interests of the mis- 
sions might be the better served. In the Californias, under 
the high-minded policy of Don Gaspar de Portola, who, 
with fine tact and courtesy, smoothed over trying situations, 
all had gone well; but—while all went well under his able 
administration—there had been, everywhere, even prior to 
the expulsion of the Jesuits, an actual, but still scarcely 
perceptible, tightening of the hand of State over Church. 
With the elevation of Fages to the military command of 
Alta California, friction—ever so slight, but friction, never- 
theless—began. According to Engelhardt, Fages, in his 
refusal at this time to go on with the founding of the 
missions, had given Serra to understand that this was his 
and not the missionaries’ affair! Still further and serious 
offense was given by Fages, in forwarding to Serra, under 
date of October 12, 1772, part of a communication from 
the viceroy to him, dated November 30, 1771, and refer- 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 143 


ring to the padre presidente. Quotations from Viceroy 
Bucareli’s letter to Fages are as follows: ‘ ‘Your Honor 
(Fages) will see to it, and you will impress upon the Rev. 
Fr. Junipero Serra, presidente of the missions, the com- 
mendable obligations under which they are by example and 
persuasion to stimulate all to obey and comply with the 
orders of Your Honor.’ In a note to this communication 
Fages remarked, ‘I bring all this to the attention of Your 
Reverence, and supplicate you to make the other religious 
understand it for the due accomplishment of so important 
en obyect:’”’ 

Of course, this forthright soldier was tactless, but the 
padre rose bravely to the occasion, replying: “‘I have 
always persuaded and urged the subalterns and subjects of 
Your Honor to obey your orders. For this I have the 
testimony of my conscience, and Your Honor could, if you 
would, bear testimony to what I have done in the case of 
the soldier Ignacio Estevanell.’ ” 

The increasing acrimony of the situation during the fall 
of the year 1772 was largely a result, “growing by what 
it fed on” in the isolation and narrowness of the lives of 
the principal participants in Alta California. ‘The deser- 
tions of the year before loom large as a prime factor of 
much that followed, both in immediate consequences and, 
appearing from time to time, in a long train of “after 
effects.’ Because of them and the consequent loss of con- 
fidence in his soldiers, coupled with the outlook upon his 
arrival at San Gabriel, it had been impossible for the 
comandante to found Mission San Buenaventura, at that 
time so intensely desired by the padre presidente. Also, his 
report in reference to these desertions—reflecting, as it was 
surmised, upon the missions—gave grave offense. As to the 
offending report made by Captain Don Pedro Fages, Lieu- 
tenant Governor, to Don Felipe Barri, Governor, who had 
succeeded Don Matias de Armona in Baja California, we 
find in Engelhardt’s Missions and Missionaries of Cali- 


144 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


fornia, that “instead of stating that it was due to the efforts 
of the missionaries that on two occasions the soldiers . . . 
returned to their duty,’’ Fages had reported to Barri that 
“the fugitive soldiers were in the church of the mission 
and protected by the missionaries.’’’ Whether at this time 
or not, it does, indeed, appear that sometimes the mission 
church was taken full advantage of for sanctuary, and, 
according to several authorities, these soldiers “took refuge 
in San Diego mission, where they were protected by the 
missionaries from the wrath of Fages’”’ (Chapman). “It 
was after the receipt of these reports,’ according to Engel- 
hardt, ‘‘that Bucareli directed Fages, no matter what steps 
Governor Barri might take, to chastise the instigators of 
insubordination, and to warn the missionaries that they 
were to obey his commands.” 

Far more reprehensible is the conduct of Fages as told 
by Richman: ‘‘He meddled in the discipline of neophytes; 
he withheld and opened letters; he appropriated the mission 
mules; he diverted mission supplies”’; but that which rankled 
and caused most bitterness was that “‘he refused to retire 
soldiers for bad conduct”; for, by reason of this, “the men 
were more or less protected in their illicit relations with 
Indian women,—relations which, aside from the effect of 
neutralizing the moral teachings of the padres, were laying 
the basis for a wide infection of the northern Indians with 
the same disease which had wrought havoc in the south.” 
In a note based upon Palou’s Vida, his Noticias and other 
sources, we find that the soldiers ‘‘were wont, it seems, for 
their diversion to capture Indian women by use of the 
lasso.” Padre Jaime, in charge of Mission San Diego at 
that time, tells us that ‘‘ ‘The tumults which have arisen 
in certain rancherias have been caused by the soldiers seiz- 
ing the Indian women.’ ” 


The comparatively simple matter which had brought 
Serra south, that of inducing Captain Pérez of the San 


i os a 
rw a Cia Ae re . ww . 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 145 


Antonio to proceed to Monterey to discharge his cargo 
instead of stranding it at San Diego, having been disposed 
of, a multiplicity of matters, trying in the extreme to him, 
now served to disturb the padre presidente. First: the 
structure which, with such care and at whatever cost in 
suffering, the Franciscans were now rearing in Alta Cali- 
fornia was being shaken to its foundation. News was slow 
in reaching the Spaniards in Alta California, and that 
brought by the San Carlos and the San Antonio, far from 
being reassuring, simply added to the difficulties now con- 
fronting him nearer at hand. If one thing alone, the 
rumored contemplated abandonment of the port of San 
Blas, should be carried out, a deathblow would be dealt the 
whole undertaking! Another thing: there was another 
viceroy, and had been for a year, but who could say what 
manner of man he was? Would his policy be that of Croix, 
favorable to the Alta California establishments, or inimical 
to the great enterprise? 

In Serra’s reasonings, many things were now unknown 
quantities that could only be represented by an x; but, in 
Alta California, where he himself was, there was to him 
a known quantity: Fages, the lieutenant governor, who was 
not only nullifying their work there but seemed, also, to 
have it in his power to undermine their influence at the 
viceregal court itself, for the padres felt that they had 
been basely misrepresented in that quarter in the matter 
of the desertions of the year before—and suspected Fages! 
There was another worry: the Dominicans, the rival “Black 
Friars,’ who had long since petitioned to share the work 
in the Californias, were about to be granted permission to 
invade the field of the Franciscan order. Serra was, of 
course, not aware that this problem had already been solved 
to the entire satisfaction of all concerned. 

While, as to himself, Serra was absolutely humble, he 
would brook no interference in matters touching upon his 
life’s work; and where, as in this case, any hesitation on 


146 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


his part might mean failure, he was unflinching in his pur- 
pose, and relentless toward whosoever might seek to stand 
in his way. He now determined that Don Pedro Fages 
should be removed as military commander of Alta Cali- 
fornia and Lieutenant Governor of the Californias,—and 
that, right speedily! 

Whatever Fages may or may not have done, in permit- 
ting the misconduct of the soldiers to continue,—if, indeed, 
he could have put a stop to it,—and in not founding at 
Serra’s behest Mission San Buenaventura and the new mis- 
sions farther north, with or without soldiers to protect 
them from the Indians, it is very certain that, at that time, 
in the now open clash between the two, the question long 
and carefully held in diplomatic abeyance, as to which 
should control where spiritual and temporal affairs met in 
connection with the missions, was ruthlessly dragged forth, 
as it never had been before, into the pitiless light of day, 
there to remain, to be, from time to time, vindictively 
fought over! Certain it is, also, that Fages was but follow- 
ing the trend of the time. 


It is somewhat startling to discover that the Franciscan 
College of San Fernando was not in full sympathy, not even 
in harmony, with the idea; was, in fact, antagonistic to the 
founding of the new missions contemplated for the Cali- 
fornias; and, moreover, was not at all enthusiastic over 
those already established. All of this is clearly set forth 
in letters written by the guardian of the college, Fray 
Rafael Verger. 3 

He, as the head of the college, founded, in 1524, for the 
training of missionaries for the spreading of the faith— 
de Propaganda Fide en la Nueva Espana—was the one 
to whom Franciscans in the Californias were subject. Yet, 
by reason of the organization of the Spanish union of 
Church and State, it was not to him but to the viceroy that 
petitions for the sending of missionaries into the field must 


kh nate — : wed Big oe 


ait ait irk aii nin pair nk Semin > 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 147 


be addressed; and, in accordance with the royal decree of 
October 13, 1733, this college was obliged to send mis- 
sionaries at the request of the viceroy. It will readily be 
seen that such a request was in reality a command and this 
was fully recognized by Verger. 

In these letters, he is expressing his opinions for what- 
ever weight they might carry with them,—and, also, putting 
himself on record. 

Translations vary with the translators, but differences in 
these are observable in nothing of outstanding importance, 
and, without much difficulty, by comparing and sifting, it 
seems possible to arrive at essentials. 

He had much to say about Baja California, which he 
speaks of as “‘a wretched, unhappy land,” from which it 
was impossible to supply Alta California; that the Penin- 
sula had been settled seventy-five years and could not raise 
enough animals or agricultural products for its own use; 
that the taking of more than five hundred head of cattle 
from these missions for those in Alta California had been 
to their very great detriment; and that the Peninsula mis- 
sions ‘‘never had been, were not, and never would be sub- 
stantial foundations” (Chapman). 

Only what is said in these letters of Alta California 
mission affairs would be pertinent except that, even under 
such radically different conditions, in the attitude of the 
college toward establishments in both Californias, they 
become so closely interrelated that much that is written of 
those in the one serves as an illuminant to a clearer under- 
standing of those in the other. No shadow of doubt is 
left in regard to the position of the college as to missions 
already established or those in contemplation. 

In the carta primera—first letter—of June 30, 1771, 
to Don Manuel Lanz de Casafonda, fiscal of the Audiencia 
of Mexico, Verger writes: ‘‘ ‘In no manner has this college 
approved the founding at one time so many and such mis- 
sions. If missionaries have been sent, it has been perforce 


148 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


and because we have not been able to resist him that com- 
mands us with power absolute, admitting neither supplica- 
tion nor argument... .’” (Richman) giote)e nas 
from Engelhardt: ‘‘ ‘One thing is certain, this enterprise 
goes forth without the prudence, the deliberation, and pre- 
caution which always has been observed in similar under- 
takings. Unless God, our Lord, co-operates by means of 
miracles, a happy issue cannot be expected’ ”’ (note). 

He was very scathing in what he wrote of Galvez, among 
other things that he “would claim ... to have taken 
measures to insure their permanence. In a few years they 
would fail, and the missionaries would be blamed. ‘The 
missions of Baja California were already as good as dead, 
and those of Alta California were missions in name only” 
(Chapman). 

In the famous carta segunda—second letter—dated 
August 3 of the same year, referring to the constant prod- 
ding of Galvez, he writes: ‘‘ ‘Hardly had the [ forty-five | 
padres reached this college, when the visitador and (in 
consequence) the Viceroy desired them to start for Cali- 
fornia. .. . already the padres had been ninety-nine days 
on the way from Spain, and half of them were ill and all 
debilitated’”’ (Richman, note). 

In this letter, he writes of Serra, of his “ ‘learning and 
beautiful endowments,’ ’’ with a full understanding of all 
he has cast aside to go among the ‘ ‘wretched gentiles’ ”’ 
and teach them with the enthusiasm evinced in his letter; 
but that ‘‘ ‘Nevertheless, it is necessary to moderate his 
ardent zeal somewhat.’ ‘No obstante es preciso moderar 
algo su ardiente zelo’” (Engelhardt), which may be 
translated in several ways. 

He is very outspoken in commenting on Serra’s state- 
ments. For instance, in reviewing the Indian situation and 
the need of more soldiers, he says, in substance, that their 
apparent submission was little to be trusted; and, as for 
those along the line of march from Velicata, they were not 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 149 


peaceful as Serra had reported, but were simply biding 
their time; that there had been a fight and ten Indians 
were killed; and, as for what had happened at San Diego, 
on August 15, 1770, when Serra had “reported that no 
Indians were killed, . . . three were, and two died later.”’ 

Verger’s conclusions as to missions in the Californias, as 
expressed in the carta segunda, Chapman regards as “‘a 
good exposition” which “tends to counterbalance the more 
optimistic (although not inaccurate) accounts of Father 
Sera k. 

That their views did not coincide has been demonstrated; 
especially in the founding of missions, there was a wide 
divergence. Again, in substance, Verger said, with a touch 
of sarcasm, that in founding missions there should be an 
understanding of “the verb to found, which did not mean 
to paint pretty pictures (pintar perspectivas).” He alluded 
to the missions as “ ‘appearances’’’ and “the mere shadow 
of great works’’; also, that it was just as Padre Paterna 
had written: San Diego was in its third year and was “not 
yet worthy of being called a mission” (ibid.). 

Although opposed to missions on unsound foundations, 
as he considered those in Alta California, and to the meager 
sums likely to be allowed for their upkeep, and opposed 
to the number of missions proposed for immediate found- 
ing, with inadequate means for the transportation of sup- 
plies, Verger’s criticisms were not entirely destructive; but, 
on the contrary, were often constructive. 

In the various letters, he offered many suggestions in case 
plans, as then announced, were to be carried out, based upon 
information contained in letters from Serra, Palou, Crespi, 
Ortega, and others, buttressing his arguments with material 
from the same source. 


That Serra delayed not at all in carrying out his intention 
of setting in motion machinery that would result in the 
summary removal of Fages from his path was to be 


150 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


expected, and the first turn of the wheel may be observed: 
“After a High Mass on October 13th Fr. Serra, therefore, 
consulted with the two Fathers stationed at San Diego” 
(Engelhardt), and the outcome was that the padre presi- 
dente was to go, himself, to Mexico, and at once! His 
purpose is set forth clearly in a letter from him to Fray 
Francisco Palou, dated October 17, that he had “ ‘deter- 
mined to journey to Mexico in order to obtain from His 
Excellency such measures as were expedient for the welfare 
of the missions for the reason that Captain Fages created 
nothing but pain, disgust, and discouragement for the 
religious without any benefit to the missions’”’ (ibid.). 
On October 20, therefore, the padre presidente sailed 
on board the San Carlos, and arrived at San Blas on Novem- 


berg, 1177.2: 


XIl 


In Mexico, meanwhile, there had been changes in office 
important to the Californias. 

The Marqués de Croix had asked to be relieved and 
had been succeeded as Viceroy of New Spain by Don 
Antonio Maria Bucareli y Ursua. This was not his full 
name, by any means. He had others—many—as befitted 
his station in life, for he was of the most exalted nobility 
in Spain and Italy. On the paternal side, he was descended 
from a Florentine family numbering among its members 
three popes and six cardinals; on the maternal, the Ursuas 
were of high rank and related to several ducal families. 
His titles, acquired and by birth, were many, also, and, 
together, names and titles present a formidable list to inflict 
upon a reader. But the reader has privileges, and may 
skip, if so minded. The writer has no such prerogative, 
especially one writing, even in ever so light a vein, of 
matters historical, and may not slightingly deprive so good 
and so great a man of that which was rightfully his. Often 
signing simply ‘“‘Bucareli’’—or strictly speaking, ‘‘Bucarely,” 
for so his autograph seems to be—in certain formal state 
papers, he was: “The Knight Commander of the Order of 
Malta, Brother Don Antonio Maria Bucareli y Ursua, 
Enestrosa, Laso de la Vega, Villacis y Cordova, Knight, 
Grand Cross, and Commander of the Vault of Toro in 
the Order of St. John, Gentleman of the Chamber of His 
Majesty, with right of entrance, Lieutenant General of 
the Royal Armies, Viceroy, Governor, and Captain Gen- 
eral of the Kingdom of New Spain, President of its Royal 
Audiencia, Superintendent General of the Royal Estate and 
the Branch of Tobacco, Judge Conservator of the latter, 


[151] 


152 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


President of its Junta, and Subdelegate General of the Rent 
of the Mails in the same Kingdom.” 

Bucareli was an Andalusian, born in Seville. He entered 
the military service of Spain as a cadet, rising steadily, 
distinguishing himself by gallantry in Italy and Spain, win- 
ning recognition in engineering and as inspector general of 
cavalry. Apparently, success came easily; but there is no 
riddle to solve—he was at all times keenly interested in 
his work, and an indefatigable worker possessed of great 
ability. Honors were his without asking; one, at least, 
the greatest, was thrust upon him. He was Governor and 
Captain General of Cuba, when, in recognition of his 
services to the Crown, he was appointed Viceroy of New 
Spain. This was a promotion he would rather not have 
received, as he was most anxious to return to Spain. Far 
from being inordinately ambitious, he was little so, but 
gave of himself without stint in an unswerving devotion 
to duty. 

Gathering up, with a rapidity little short of marvelous, 
affairs of state laid down by Croix, with rare perception 
Bucareli mastered the intricacies of the many problems 
presented to him for solution, problems that would have 
daunted one less able. 

One matter, vastly important to Alta California, came 
to his attention in a memorial under date of May 2, 1772, 
from Juan Bautista de Anza, commanding the Presidio of 
Tubac, asking permission to open a way into Alta Cali- 
fornia, and reiterating the long-known need for an over- 
land route to the northwest coast across the Gila and Colo- 
rado rivers. A road to Baja California had been sought 
around the head of the gulf, but no attempt had been made 
since the Jesuit padres, Eusebio Kino and Juan Maria 
Salvatierra, had, in 1701, struggled bravely toward that 
end, failing for want of provisions. All that hung in the 
balance: the great need for opening a way from Sonora— 
a land of plenty—to the rescue of the establishments in 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 153 


Alta California, as well as the reason no road had so far 
been opened, seems to have been well understood by the 
new viceroy. Before the Anza letter, or memorial, had 
been received, Bucareli had been considering the feasibility 
of such a venture, and had already, in a letter to Governor 
Sastre, of Sonora, asked for his opinion in the matter. 
The name of Hermenegildo Garcés now enters the story. 
He was a Franciscan friar from the College of Santa Cruz, 
at Querétaro, stationed at Mission San Xavier del Bac, 
north of the Presidio of Tubac. During several years, he 
had wandered about among the various Indian tribes, far 
and wide, much of the time alone, with only belongings 
enough to be carried by one horse, jotting down happen- 
ings and inferences in his diary. These experiences and 
conclusions, together with letters on the same subject from 
other persons, were included in an expediente—all docu- 
ments in an official file in a given case—and forwarded to 
Don Julian de Arriaga, under date of March 25, 1772. 
From the first, Bucareli was interested in Alta California, 
and did not delay in the matter of the Anza memorial, but 
gave it his immediate and careful attention, referring it on 
May 6 to the royal fiscal—attorney general—Don José de 
Areche, who reported favorably upon it. By viceregal 
decree of August 26, Anza’s petition was submitted to Don 
Miguel Costans6, who had accompanied the 1769 expedi- 
tion to Monterey. He “returned a very important report, 
September 5, 1772. He estimated the distance between 
Tubac and Monterey as 180 leagues in a straight line.” 
He said “. . . the Indians certainly did communicate with 
each other. He himself had seen implements at the Santa 
Barbara Channel, such as knives . . . and other things, 
which had come from Spanish soldiers in New Mexico, not 
brought directly, but passed from hand to hand, as the 
Indians were too hostile to one another to stray far from 
their native land. A pass would have to be found through 


154 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


mountain ridges between the Colorado River and the Pacific 
Ocean; the mountains were certainly extensive and rough, 
but if the Indians crossed them, Spaniards could. Pioneers’ 
tools, such as lvers, spades, and pickaxes should be carried, 
however... . The utility of such a route was unquestion- 
able. .. . It was along, arduous voyage from San Blas, 
and the boats were too small to permit of transporting 
families. Thus, Spaniards in San Diego and Monterey 
must remain unmarried. On the other hand, Sonora pro- 
duced every kind of grain and fruit, and the distance was 
not excessive, wherefore provisions and families might be 
sent from Sonora, giving the new settlements greater soli- 
darity than they then had’ (Chapman). 

In Anza’s letter of May 2, the name of Garcés con- 
stantly appears, and he asks that in case he be granted 
the permission prayed for, he be permitted to take Garcés 
with him, and twenty or twenty-five soldiers from his own 
presidio, a sufficient number for his enterprise. The name 
of Garcés again appears in Areche’s report of October 12, 
1772, which was, in part, as follows: “. . . that the expe- 
dition be authorized, since Anza was to undergo the 
expense. Garcés should go, too, and the tools suggested 
by Costanso should be taken. Anza was entitled to praise 
for suggesting the expedition, for it would be a great advan- 
tage to have a better route than . . . by way of San Blas 
or Loreto. It would help the missions and presidios of 
Alta California, and those of Sonora as well, by giving the 
latter a market for its products. .. . This would reduce 
the burden on the royal treasury in maintaining the new 
establishments, a very great one with no better routes than 
the two maintained at the time. The only objection to 
the project was the withdrawal of troops from Tubac, they 
being needed against the Apaches, but this could be 
overcome by... supplying their places until Anza’s 
return...” (ibid.). Some time in the preceding year, 
1771, Anza had written a letter to Garcés, which had been 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 155 


passed from one Indian to another, until, finally, it had 
been delivered to the padre, far away in the wilds. ‘The 
two were in entire accord in the matter of an expedition 
for the exploration and discovery of a way from Sonora 
to Monterey; and Garcés had, in August of the present 
year, already applied to the presidente of his college, Padre 
Gil de Bernabé, at Querétaro, for permission to seek a way 
from Pimeria Alta. 


Spanish official reports in those days were very volu- 
minous affairs, covering many pages and going into great 
detail; and sometimes, in a not very important matter, 
taking a whole day to read; but, even so, and notwith- 
standing, it was not unusual for officials to ask for further 
information and greater detail! More than the usual 
preparations had been made for the enlightenment of the 
junta to which the Anza memorial was to be submitted, 
called by the viceroy to convene on October 17, 1772, and 
everything possible to obtain relating to the subject had > 
been collected. 

The junta was convened on the date named, but, not- 
withstanding the enormous dossier prepared with such 
elaboration of detail, it was decided that more information 
would be necessary before official action could be possible! 
Resolutions adopted were, in part, as follows: The opinion 
of Garcés ‘‘should be asked, and a copy of his 1771 diary 
should be sent for; the expediente should be sent to Gov- 
ernor Sastre, and his opinion asked, whether Anza’s under- 
taking would disturb the peace of that government; Anza 
should be thanked for the zeal which his proposal indicated; 
and a copy of the papers should be sent to the king. 
Bucarely concurred in the decision, and wrote presently for 
the reports requested, writing at length also to Arriaga, 
October 27, 1772, reciting the course of Anza’s petition 
and forwarding a testimonio [a bound file of official docu- 
ments] ... ” (ibid.). October 17, the date of the order 


156 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


that an expediente be forwarded to Governor Sastre, being 
only two days prior to October 19, the date of a letter 
received from him in reply to one from the viceroy request- 
ing his opinion as to the practicability of opening a way 
from Sonora to Monterey, under date of March 18, a 
month and more before the date of the Anza memorial 
of May 2, it will be seen that this letter from Sastre was 
in no way a reply to the similar request of the lately 
adjourned junta. In this letter to Bucareli, he wrote that 
an attempt to reach Monterey by Garcés, if successful, 
would be advantageous; that Padre Zalazar had intimated 
that he did not believe the Indians would let Garces 
through, but that he, Sastre, ‘believed that he would be 
successful, and should be permitted to try his project’’ 
(ibid.). The viceroy sent a copy of the letter to Arriaga, 
and wrote, himself, giving his reasons for calling a junta, 
namely: to decide on the petition of Captain Juan Bautista 
de Anza, of the Presidio of Tubac. On January 13, 1773; 
he acknowledged the receipt of the Sastre letter, quoted 
above. 


Affairs were about at this stage in the matter of the 
overland way across the Gila and Colorado rivers into 
California, when Fray Junipero Serra arrived at the capital. 

He had landed at San Blas on November 4, after a 
voyage of only fifteen days from San Diego. A few days 
later, on his way to Mexico City, at the Franciscan hos picio 
at [epic he heard, it is supposed for the first time, that 
the College of San Fernando, which had been put in control 
of the California missions at the time of the expulsion of 
the Jesuits in 1767, had ceded all the missions on the 
Peninsula to the Dominicans. In that way, the Franciscans 
in that field, experienced in missionary work among the 
Indians, would be available for the work in Alta Cali- 
fornia. Palou, in charge of the Baja California mis- 
sions, had already been notified and had despatched two 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 157 


friars with the news to Alta California; but, evidently, 
they had not arrived before the departure of the padre 
presidente. 

This matter had been brewing since 1768, when the 
Dominicans petitioned Carlos III of Spain to be given 
a license to found establishments on the west coast. ‘The 
Franciscans had not opposed; and, in fact later, in 1771, 
the Guardian of the College of San Fernando had sug- 
gested to the viceroy that the Dominicans, or some other 
order, should share in the work in Baja California. De 
Croix opposed the idea, fearing a clash between the two 
orders. However, a division of the territory had already 
been commanded in a royal cédula, April 8, 1770; and two 
years later, April 7, 1772, a concordato was signed, fixing, 
about fifteen leagues below San Diego, a line of apostolic 
demarcation between Alta and Baja California. 

In a correspondence between Padre Palou, in charge of 
the missions in Baja California; Paterna, acting presidente 
in Alta California during Serra’s absence; the guardian, 
Verger, at the College of San Fernando; and Serra, himself, 
at Tepic, it was decided that of those missionaries then 
stationed at the Peninsula missions, ten should be sent north, 
including the two already at San Diego, leaving eight to 
go later. 

Padre Francisco Palou was a bone of friendly contention, 
being desired by Verger, who hoped he would elect to 
return to the college, and by Serra, who wrote that he 
hoped to read Palou’s name among those who were to go 
to Alta California; ‘‘and lo!” like Abou Ben Adhem’s, his 
‘name led all the rest.” 


Proceeding, both Fray Junipero Serra and the Indian 
boy, Juan Evangelista, were stricken with a malignant fever 
at Guadalajara, and were so seriously ill that the last sac- 
rament was administered; but both recovered and continued 
the journey. When the Apostolic College of Santa Cruz, 


158 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


at Querétaro, was reached, about fifty leagues from the 
capital, the padre presidente suffered a relapse and was 
‘given up to die.” Whereupon, another physician was 
summoned who ridiculed the idea, saying: ‘“‘ “And is this the 
reverend father to whom the last sacrament is to be admin- 
istered? It might as well be administered to me. 

He . . . may rise whenever he will’”’ (Hittell). 

A few days later, Serra resumed his journey, reaching 
the College of San Fernando, according to Hittell, on 
“February 6, 1773, very tired, very much reduced and very 
weak but otherwise . . . in good spirits.” Upon arrival, 
he received the blessing of his superior, Fray Rafael Verger. 
Shortly after, he was given audience by the viceroy. 


In order to place matters concerning his work in Alta 
California in their true light—according to his way of 
thinking—before the viceroy, who might, for aught he 
knew, be friend or foe; and to seek relief from the ever- 
increasing and harassing difficulties surrounding him, Serra 
had made the long journey to Mexico. Now that he was 
there and in the presence of the viceroy, he knew but little 
more of the mental attitude, toward him and all that he 
represented, of the man before whom he stood! Fortu- 
nately, this man to whom he had come with his very real 
difficulties and also his grievances, was Bucareli, and was, 
himself, earnestly seeking the light and striving to solve 
these very problems; but, so far, he had not been able to 
disentangle to his entire satisfaction truth from falsehood, 
in the complaints and counter-complaints coming to him 
from and about the Californias. 

The viceroy received him graciously, and Serra, gifted 
with eloquence, laid bare his heart. Bucareli gave very 
careful attention, and asked him to present such matters 
as he wished him further to consider officially, in the form 
of a memorial; to include an expression of opinion in the 
matter of an overland route across the Gila and Colorado 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 159 


rivers into Alta California; and to set forth his reasons 
for the nonabandonment of the port of San Blas. 

Serra had made a very special plea that supplies should 
be sent at once to Alta California, which had received 
nothing from Mexico for several months, and to this the 
viceroy promised to give his immediate attention. 


In a note, Chapman says: “‘Serra’s complaint against 
Fages came at a time when it was apt to be heard favor- 
ably. Shortly before, December 2, 1772, Bucarely had 
written to Fages remarking upon the latter’s failure to 
give an account of conditions at the presidio and missions, 
and requesting him in future to report all that occurred.” 
On the other hand, the comandante was not an ungenerous 
antagonist to Serra, for it appears that “Serra had received 
from California a certificate from Fages dated Monterey, 
Dec. 22, 1772, to the effect that the missions were all sup- 
plied with padres and that Serra had left on business con- 
nected with his work” (Bancroft, note). From the date, 
it may be seen that Serra had not brought the certificate 
with him, nor could he have sent back for it; consequently, 
it was sent after him and, it would appear, voluntarily. 

The visitador, Don José de Galvez, had held Don Pedro 
Fages in very high esteem, but was not now in Mexico. 

Mention has been made of the long illness prostrating 
the visitador soon after his arrival in Sonora, and from 
which he did not recover for many months,—acute stages 
of a malignant fever of the country being followed by short 
periods of apparent recovery, and these in turn by relapses. 
His ravings during delirium seem to have been “Set in a 
note-book, learn’d and conn’d by rote”’ by his secretaries and 
others about him. Greatly alarmed by his condition, various 
letters were written to friends and to the viceroy, ill- 
advisedly stating that the visitador was insane, having 
suffered ‘‘civil death or loss of reason.”” This, Galvez did 
not overlook upon recovery, and severe punishment was 


160 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


relentlessly meted out to those who—once the stigma of 
insanity had been put upon him—would undoubtedly have 
caused his retirement from office and his permanent 
undoing. 

None of this need be gone into here, as the whole matter 
is fully set forth in Herbert Ingram Priestley’s masterly 
monograph: José de Galvez. In the nature of a summing 
up, Priestley says: ““The Sonora campaign was a severe 
trial to the strength of many of its official members. Before 
it was over Pineda, Belena and Galvez all suffered from 
discomforting maladies. Lorenzo Cancio, one of the 
captains, died before he could leave the country. It was 
not surprising that Galvez should contract fever from the 
exposures of camp life, nor that he should be unbalanced 
mentally during high fevers. Unfortunately, after the 
fevers left him his mental equilibrium was not speedily 
restored. But when he did recover, the fact that he retained 
the confidence and friendship of the viceroy and the favor 
of the King might have made him more magnanimous 
towards inferiors who had done him no intentional harm, 
and who were loyal to him.” Prior to this, he says: “‘The 
account of Viniegra of the insanity of Galvez is the story of 
an eye-witness. While it is a rancorous document, it is 
worthy of credence, as is borne out in essential respects by 
the story of Belena . Me 

With apologies, it does not seem possible quite to agree 
with some of the deductions. In the writer’s opinion, it 
should not be lost sight of that Viniegra’s letter was ‘‘a 
rancorous document,’ nor that Belena had every reason 
for having no very kindly feeling toward the visitador, 
and, in fact, was a man with a very real and personal griey- 
ance, if not a grudge! 

The visitador returned to the capital late in May or early 
in June, 1770. On July 26, he wrote to Arriaga, asking 
permission to return to Spain, but nothing to the point 
could be obtained from the king. In May of the next 


allel da 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 161 


year, 1771, his request was urged for the second time, by 
his brother, Miguel de Galvez, in Madrid. Permission 
was then accorded, grudgingly, with the specification that 
he was to remain at his post until three to four months after 
the arrival of the newly appointed viceroy. Six months’ 
salary was advanced him and his request acceded to that 
upon his return he might be accompanied by his nephew, 
Bernardo de Galvez, and the Bethlehemite friar, Joaquin 
de la Trinidad, who had been with him during a part of 
his illness, having been sent from Mexico to act as his 
physician while en route to the capital. It was he who 
said the visitador ‘‘was far more sane than his secretaries 
and wrote to the viceroy to that effect’? (Priestley). 

Bucareli arrived in September, 1771. Croix having 
asked and been given permission to return to Spain with 
Galvez, the visitador and the former viceroy departed, 
sailing at the end of November of the same year from 
Vera Cruz; and, after a voyage of eighteen days, arrived 
at Havana. There, they were held port bound by contrary 
winds until April 8 of the following year, 1772. On 
May 21, they reached Cadiz. 

‘Proceeding at once to Madrid, Galvez was received 
with honor by the King; his personal debts to Echeveste 
incurred in Sonora, to the amount of 30,000 pesos, were 
ordered paid from the treasury. It was not long until he 
began to serve actively in his capacity as a member of the 
Council of the Indies, he having been honored with an 
appointment to that body before he had gone on the expedi- 
tion to Sonora” (ibid.). 

Prior to his appointment as Viceroy of New Spain, 
Francisco Carlos de Croix had served in the army with 
distinction, having attained the rank of Capitan General. 
Upon his return from Mexico, he was appointed Viceroy 
of the Kingdom of Valencia, remaining in office until his 


death in 1786. 


XIII 


The outlook in the Californias had been far from favor- 
able, and no very attractive picture of conditions had been 
presented to the new viceroy in the complaints greeting 
him from both sides in the disputes rife there, coming 
since and waxing steadily. Reading between the lines of 
these memorials, he had envisioned the establishments in 
Alta California tottering on unstable foundations and, 
apparently, about to fall, while still no more than the begin- 
nings of the contemplated structures. Ina letter to Arriaga, 
dated a little later—-May 27, 1773,—-Bucareli writes: ‘* ‘No 
subject of the many that this very vast government produces 
has given me more to do than the regulation of the Depart- 
ment of San Blas and the Peninsula de Californias [Alta 
California being still included under that designation ]’ ” 
(Chapman). 

Although in Alta California the missions were being held 
together in any way they could be, affairs at the capital 
pertaining to them were not allowed by Bucareli to remain 
at a standstill. Indeed, in retrospect, the year 1773 stands 
out as very important in their development. 


“In order that Fr. Serra might have the merit of religious 
obedience in drawing up the paper to be presented to 


Viceroy Bucareli, Fr. Guardian Rafael Vergér of the Col- | 


lege, under date of March gth, 1773, formally commanded 

him to prepare a full and truthful statement” (Engelhardt, 

note). The completed document was dated March 13, 

1773, and was presented to the viceroy with a letter, or, 

according to Engelhardt, an address, in part as follows: 

“Your Excellency,—I place this document into your hands. 
[ 162 ] 


EE a 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 163 


From it Your Excellency will see that what I state is the 
plain truth, and that what I set forth, as it seemed to me, 
I had to say in conscience, because I consider it very impor- 
tant and necessary in order that the object which His 
Majesty has in view by going to such great expense may 
be accomplished. .. . I hope that Your Excellency will 
read it, and that you will determine what you may judge 
to be right and expedient without delay, as I am obliged 
to return and wish to do so as soon as possible. May what 
I ask be granted, in which case I shall return very con- 
tented; if it is not granted, I shall go somewhat saddened, 
but always entirely conformed to the will of God.’ ”’ 

This representacion—a presentation in proper form—of 
matters already laid before Bucareli by Serra, in person, 
was a most important document, and, as formulated, under 
thirty-two heads, bears witness to his ability. On March 16, 
the petition was referred to Areche, the fiscal, who reported 
favorably, and on May 6, it was submitted with Areche’s 
report to the Board of War and Finance. 

At that time, a plan was being pushed, backed by the 
statement that the harbor of San Blas was filling with sand, 
to transfer the base of supplies to Guaymas farther up the 
coast, transshipping goods across the gulf to San Luis Bay, 
and sending them from there overland into Alta California 
by pack train. Seeking information, as was his way, in 
his conscientious endeavor to find the truth, Bucareli 
instructed Serra to formulate, separate, and apart from the 
representacion proper, his reasons for his opposition to this 
plan and his vigorous urging of the retention of San Blas 
as a base of supplies for the Californias. And, under date 
of April 22, 1773, he did so, most praiseworthily. His 
arguments were clear and unanswerable, and, briefly and 
in substance, were: That to transport provisions eight hun- 
dred leagues by land and two hundred leagues by sea, 
taking probably two years, was not only difficult but prac- 
tically impossible; were it otherwise possible, it would 


164 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


require some fifteen hundred mules, one hundred horses, 
and one hundred guards and arrieros. He brought out the 
fact that the cost would be far greater—more than the 
allowance for Alta California for a whole year. He said 
he did not expect ever to see a successful supply route up 
the Peninsula. He pointed out that with the passing and 
repassing of pack trains, because of the character of the 
men usually in charge, the aborigines would become brutal- 
ized and hardened, and, because of their own propensity 
to steal and rob, with this new temptation constantly thrust 
before them, totally demoralized, so that, perhaps, they 
could not be redeemed, and thus the spiritual conquest 
would be retarded. 

_ His reasoning so convinced the viceroy that he gave 
orders that the port of San Blas was to be maintained, at 
least for the present, until the king’s pleasure in the matter 
could be known. The document was then forwarded to 
the king, and all this before the junta had convened to 
consider such matters as had been brought to the attention 
of the viceroy by the padre presidente. 

A third paper requested, and prepared by Fray Junipero, 
was a report on the missions, of conditions in detail exist- 
ing at the time of his departure from Alta California in 
September of the year before, and this, also, was submitted, 
under date of May 21, 1773. 


Serra’s memorial—representacién—together with a 
favorable report from the royal fiscal, was submitted to 
the junta de guerra y real hacienda—board of war and 
finance—and the result, as set forth in Bancroft’s most 
excellent summary, will be drawn upon and still further 
summarized: “By the decision [of the junta, to which it 
was submitted on May 6, 1773] the commandant was 
required to transfer from the mission guard to the presidio, 
at the minister’s request, any soldier of irregular conduct 
and bad example, and this without the padre being obliged 


ee ee ee 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 165 


to name or prove the soldier’s offence; the missionaries 
were to have the right to manage the mission Indians as 
a father would manage his family, and the military com- 
mandant should be instructed to preserve perfect harmony 
with the padres; property and letters for the friars or 
missions were to be forwarded separately instead of being 
enclosed to the presidio commander; and the friars’ cor- 
respondence was not to be meddled with, passing free of 
mail charges like that of the soldiers. .. . Serra was to 
receive his regular pay . . . during his whole absence from 
California. [But his expenses were not allowed.] Con- 
tributions of food . . . were to be forwarded expressly 
for the missions, and Governor Barri was not to hinder 
the removal of the church property at Velicata. Sailors 
might be enlisted at San Blas and employed as laborers 
at the missions, . . . regular crews of the transports must 
not be interfered with. Two blacksmiths, two carpenters, 
with some tools and material were to be sent from Guadala- 
jara for the exclusive use of the missions. Seven additional 
bells were to be furnished, four of them’ having already 
been sent to Monterey. Additional vestments were to be 
sent to take the place of soiled, worn, and ‘indecent’ articles 
contained in some of the cases from Baja California.”’ 

It may be said, just here, that some of the “soiled, worn, 
and ‘indecent’ articles” referred to were the vestments left 
by the banished Jesuit padres, which Don José de Galvez— 
than whom no one had the welfare of the Alta California 
missions more at heart—had caused to be gathered up and 
sent to the missions in that wild land, where mass was still 
celebrated in huts built of palisades daubed with mud. The 
vestments asked for by Fray Junipero were many and 
vastly different! 

To continue: ‘San Blas measures were to be adjusted 

. and a full set of standards sent to each mission. 
Greater care was to be taken in packing food for Cali- 
fornia. .. . Cattle for the proposed missions were to be 


166 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


under the temporary care of the missionaries, who might 
use their milk. A new surgeon was to be sent in the place 
of Prat, deceased, and finally a copy of the junta’s decision 
was to be given to Serra, that the missionaries might here- 
after act understandingly.”’ 

Serra was ‘‘charged to return as soon as possible to his 
post, after having made a complete report on the condition 
of each mission.”” On May 21, as has been said, he “‘pre- 
sented, as required, a full report on the California missions, 
giving the history of each from its foundation and its con- 
dition in September 1772.” 

Out of Serra’s thirty-two requests, two had been disposed 
of before the convening of the junta; eighteen had been 
granted and part of another. Out of the eleven remaining, 
one was executed by the king; two were left to the viceroy 
to decide; four postponed until the reorganization of the 
military should be effected, as ordered by royal decree the 
year before; three were to be dealt with under forthcoming 
regulations, or disposed of by the viceroy; and one was 
granted later. 


It has been my purpose to bring about the understanding 
that a way overland into Alta California across the Gila 
and Colorado rivers had been repeatedly urged and long 
in contemplation, but, for various reasons already touched 
upon, had not, so far, been possible. 

It has been my purpose, also, to call attention to the fact 
that the man who could break a way from Sonora to the 
northwest coast through the country of Apaches, Seris, and 
other Indians usually on the warpath; across unknown wilds, 
burning, sandy wastes of desert without water, and through 
mountain passes leading no one knew where, was far more 
dificult to secure than the necessary mandate from king 
or viceroy, or even, mirabile dictu, money with which to 
finance the enterprise! In the year 1737, such a man had 
appeared in Captain Juan Bautista de Anza, of the Presidio 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 167 


of Fronteras, who had petitioned to be allowed to under- 
take the venture at his own expense. The value—nay, the 
necessity—of a route entirely overland, to aid in protecting 
the northwest coast should the menace of foreign encroach- 
ment become a reality, although there were as yet no settle- 
ments, was beginning to make itself felt; and now the man 
who could accomplish the needed result was ready. It 
seemed as though the petition would be granted and the 
attempt at last made, but Captain Anza was killed by the 
Apaches and, once more, the matter sank out of sight. 
Again, in 1769, a man presented himself in the person 
of another Juan Bautista de Anza, the son of the first, and 
petitioned Don José de Galvez to be allowed to lead an 
expedition over the same trackless land to meet! the sea 
division of the expedicion santa at Monterey; but, because 
of the Indian situation, about as bad at that time as pos- 
sible, it was not thought advisable to withdraw Anza from 
the Presidio of Tubac, and the offer was declined by the 
visitador. An expedient, fully detailed elsewhere in these 
pages, was resorted to—a way up the Peninsula—and 
found, as had been expected, absolutely inadequate, even 
in conjunction with the supply boats from San Blas, to meet 
the needs of the new establishments in Alta California. 
Frontiersmen of a fine type were these Anzas—three 
generations in the service of the king—grandfather, father, 
and son! ‘The first of whom we have record served for 
thirty years as lieutenant and captain at the Presidio of 
Janos; his son, Juan Bautista de Anza, for twenty years 
in the same capacities at the Presidio of Corodeguache de 
Fronteras, acting, also, for a time as temporary governor 
of the province. “In the latter capacity he had merited 
and won general approval, especially by breaking up an 
Indian conspiracy in 1737. In that year one Arisivi, an 
Indian, claimed to be a herald of Montezuma, saying that 
the latter had come back to life to restore the Mexican 
Empire.” Anza promptly ‘‘hanged Arisivi and several of 


168 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


his followers, which ended the revolt’? (Chapman). In 
his connection with the bolas de plata incident, we have 
seen how faithfully he endeavored to safeguard the inter- 
ests of the king. The son of this Juan Bautista de Anza 
—also Juan Bautista—was born at Fronteras, in 1735. 
He entered the service as a volunteer at the age of eighteen, 
becoming a lieutenant on July 1, 1755, and taking part 
in a campaign against the Apaches in 1758. “On February 
19, 1760, he was promoted to the captaincy of the presidio 
of Tubac, but, owing to the death of Viceroy Amarillas, 
the appointment had never been confirmed. Bancroft refers 
to a campaign by Anza in 1760 against the Seris, and to 
another of 1766 against the Apaches. One of Anza’s 
principal achievements was the subjecting of the Papagos, 
a tribe of over three thousand Indians, on which occasion 
he killed their chief with his own hand. He had made 
many campaigns in southern Sonora, against the Seris and 
others... . In the military operations of Elizondo, 
Anza was a conspicuous figure’ (ibid.). 

In 1765, the Marqués de Rubi was commissioned to 
make an inspection of the presidios of New Spain; and, of 
Tubac, he reported, February 21, 1767, writing of Anza 
that “ ‘by reason of his activity, valor, zeal, intelligence, 
and notable unselfishness he is an all-round good officer 
(un Completto ofizial), worthy of being distinguished by 
His Majesty in remuneration for his services, and as a 
stimulus to others.’ . . . Not only Anza’s accounts, but 
also the declarations of his soldiers, showed that he had 
never done anything prejudicial to his troops, but, on the 
contrary, had always treated them liberally; he had actu- 
ally reduced prices for them, displaying a generosity which, 
according to Rubi, was very rare in the frontier proy- 
inces, * (thrd.)., 

After all this and much more, he petitioned, in 1770, 
for the full rank of captain which, but for the death of the 
viceroy, would have been his ten years before; his petition 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 169 


was recommended by Juan de Pineda and Domingo Eli- 
zondo, his immediate chiefs, and also by the viceroy, Fran- 
cisco Carlos de Croix, in a letter of April 29, 1770, to 
Arriaga. The petition was referred to General Alejandro 
O’ Reilly—Alexander O’Reilly—an Irishman in the service 
of Spain, who replied that ‘‘as the command of a presidio 
was a very lucrative one, it ought not to be given too freely, 
but only as an exceptional reward. He therefore recom- 
mended telling Anza that his petition would be borne in 
mind, and would be granted, if he continued to merit 
the viceroy’s approval. O?’Reilly’s recommendation was 
adopted verbatim by Arriaga... . So for the time being 
Anza’s petition was denied” (ibid.). In the face of such a 
record, he was practically told ‘“‘to be a good little boy and 
he’d ‘be an angel, by and by.’ ” 

Anza was interested for many years prior to 1772, and 
while a mere youth, in the venture now held for considera- 
tion by the junta. Quaintly, Palou tells us that “‘ “The said 
captain, Don Juan Bautista de Anza, was in accord with 
the desire of his deceased father and just as if the latter 
might have bequeathed the idea in a clause of his 
mete.) (abid.). 

In 1769, Anza met Don José de Galvez and gave him 
the reasons for his certainty that a route to Alta California 
by way of Sonora, and across the two rivers, was practi- 
cable. In a covert way, Governor Sastre had apparently 
endeavored to belittle Anza and his project, but, says 
Chapman, “Of his character and abilities the writer has 
seen many documents giving praise of the highest kind.” 
Bishop Tamaron, while at Tubac on a diocesan tour in 
1763, states that Anza was a married man, having married 
the sister of the chaplain of the post, José Manuel Diaz 
del Carpio. 

We now have a very full account of Juan Bautista de 
Anza, the second,—and of his forbears besides,—whose 
petition to the viceroy, of May 2, 1772, had been held in 


170 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


statu quo by the junta called to consider it, to await the 
receipt of further information asked for by that body at 
that time. We know what manner of man he was, his 
disposition and character; none too much to know of the 
man who seems to be the hero of this part of the story. 

While the Bucareli-Sastre correspondence, already 
referred to, was in progress, in accordance with the action 
of the junta in the matter of the Anza petition held in 
abeyance since October 17 of the preceding year, and now, 
in September, 1773, being drawn to a conclusion, Anza, 
Sastre, and Garcés had all been written to. At that time, 
Anza was on the Apache frontier, and in his reply to a 
letter from Bucareli, dated October 28, 1772, wrote, on 
the 22d of the following January, that before he could 
answer the viceroy’s questions he must consult his memo- 
randa, and should have to be granted leave by Governor 
Sastre to go to the Presidio of Tubac, where his papers 
were. On March 7, Anza wrote again to Bucareli from 
Tubac, and in this letter he wrote much of Garcés, how 
he had gone alone to the Colorado River, taking nothing 
more than one horse could carry, and living among the 
Indians. Nothing much, he said, had been accomplished 
by the Jesuits in their explorations beyond the Colorado; 
and that he, himself, did not believe a thing the Jesuits 
had written, but that Garcés was a man of integrity. 

It must be remembered that at that time the Jesuits 
were in great disrepute, and were commended for nothing 
—not even for what they really had accomplished! It is 
significant of this that in the deliberations of this junta, 
not a single Jesuit report bearing upon the subject had been 
consulted. 

The Indian situation was the cause, in part, of the long 
withholding of a decision in the Anza matter, for during 
this year, 1773, there had been much restlessness among 
them in territory that would have to be traversed by the 
proposed expedition. Of this Anza wrote that ‘“Tubac 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 171 


was just then busily engaged with the Apaches, who might 
hinder an advance to the Colorado and Gila . . . ” (ibid.). 
He said that the data furnished by Garcés and himself 
would be ample upon which to base the viceroy’s decision. 
There was no entente cordiale between Governor Sastre 
and Captain Anza, but this was the only way this was ever 
hinted at by him; except that it might be construed to mean 
that he did not wish this matter to be controlled by Sastre, 
when he wrote, as he did in this letter, that in case the 
viceroy should decide to authorize the expedition, he should 
ask—*‘ ‘the better to be understood’ ”—that three favors 
be granted him: that he be sent under direct orders from 
the viceroy; that the government be ordered to furnish 
such assistance as he should need, for all of which he 
would gladly pay out of his own pocket; and that, upon 
his return, he might deliver his report in person. 

Together with a letter dated March 8, from Garcés, 
came the diaries asked for by the junta, copies of which 
were forwarded by Bucareli to Arriaga. Garcés and Anza 
seem to have been in entire accord, and, as Garcés had 
been unable to bring about the consummation of his own 
desires, he had thrown in his efforts with those of Anza 
toward the end suggested in Anza’s letter to Bucareli of 
May 2, 1772. On his side, Anza had asked that Garcés 
be allowed to accompany him, in the event of his petition 
being granted. Garcés gave many reasons in his letter 
why the proposed expedition should be authorized, and 
wrote in the highest terms of Anza, saying: “‘*. . . the said 
captain is exceedingly affable, patient, liberal, well-beloved 
by the Indians, punctilious in matters of the service, and 
with no improper habits of life.’ Again, Anza had ‘a 
sufficient fund of discretion to resolve any unforeseen inci- 
dent . . . and the manners to meet European people or 
those of other quality’” (ibid.). He evidently did not 
agree with the suggestions of Governor Sastre that either 
he should go entirely alone or that only Anza should 


172 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


accompany him; but thought the “‘considerable force” pro- 
posed by Anza would not be so dangerous a proceeding. 

On June 14, all the documents in the Anza matter were 
referred by Bucareli to Areche; and two months later, 
August 14, Areche replied, advising that the same junta 
which had considered the matter in October of the previ- 
ous year be reconvened that it might reach a conclusion. 
Everything in connection with the matter that had come 
to hand since that junta had been added to the Anza 
dossier: the correspondence between the viceroy and Govy- 
ernor Sastre; the Garcés diaries; letters from Bucareli to 
Arriaga; one from Arriaga, expressing approval of all 
that had so far been done; the Anza and Garcés letters 
and the opinion of Governor Sastre. 

The junta was reconvened on September 9, 1773, to 
consider the Anza proposal. After due deliberation, a 
resolution was adopted, of which the following is a digest 
in which it will be seen that, in granting Captain Anza’s 
petition, the “three favors” asked by him had not been 
forgotten: ‘ ‘Having read the documents named, and hay- 
ing considered the whole matter . . . it was resolved by 
unanimous agreement: ‘That it was a useful and proper 
thing to discover a route by way of the Gila and Colorado 
rivers to the new establishments of San Diego and Mon- 
terey, according to the terms that Captain Don Juan Bau- 
tista de Anza proposes; . . . That he shall be accom- 
panied by the Reverend Father Francisco Garcés, whose 
advice, on account of his wide experience, shall be taken, 
for the success of the expedition, . . . and the said 
Reverend Father Garcés may be accompanied by 
another religious agreeable to him and of good 
conduct; That the said captain make no _ establish- 
ment, directing his route to the latitude of Monterey, and 
from there give an account to His Excellency the Viceroy 
in minute detail of all that shall have occurred in the 
journey, . . . ; That once the discovery is accomplished, 


ea 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 173 


the said captain may come to this Court to inform His 
Excellency of what he shall deem fitting, as he [Anza] 
proposes; That orders on the subject be sent directly to 
the said captain, and that the latter may give an account 
directly to His Excellency of what happens; ee 
(ibid.). 

On the 13th, the viceroy decreed that the resolution of 
the junta be executed; and on the 26th, he wrote to Arriaga, 
enclosing a testimonio of the proceedings. Every step that 
was necessary to put the matter on an official basis had 
been complied with. Other things, such as the approval 
of the king conveyed to Bucareli by Arriaga, seem to have 
been merely matters of detail. 


Now—“at long last’’—all the memorials, petitions, and 
pleas to the king, stretching away, far into the past, had 
been answered; and an overland route to the northwest 
coast of the Californias was to be opened. 


XIV 


During the year 1773, California affairs occupied a 
prominent position in the official foreground at the capital 
of New Spain. With new complications, a new modus 
operandi was necessary. This matter, with its details, 
political, military, and financial, was entrusted to Juan 
José de Echeveste, an expert, forwarder of supplies from 
San Blas. According to instructions, he formulated a plan 
for the government of the Californias, and, on May 19, 
proposed a provisional reglamento, adopted on the 8th day 
of the following July. On the 23d of the same month, it 
was confirmed by the viceroy, to go into effect on January 
es eae 

On August 14, 1773, Captain Fernando de Rivera y 
Moncada was appointed to take command in Alta Cali- 
fornia; and, on August 17, special orders were issued to 
him, including instructions to make a careful survey of 
the port of San Francisco with a view to the establishment 
of a presidio and mission. At the time of his appointment, 
he was in Guadalajara, but hastened to the capital to receive 
his orders. As issued to him, they were arranged to be 
used in conjunction with the Echeveste Reglamento Pro- 
visional. ‘These, with new regulations added from time to 
time, constituted the law of California for many years. 
Rivera then went to Sinaloa, recruiting for the Alta Cali- 
fornia service married men who were to take their families 
with them. 

On September 7, Bucareli wrote to Fages, informing him 
of the appointment of Rivera and ordering him to return 
with his company of Catalan Volunteers by the first vessel 


[174] 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 175 


departing after he had turned over the command, and to 
join his regiment at Real de Pachuca. 


The removal of Don Pedro Fages, the most impelling 
of the several reasons for the suddenly-determined-upon 
journey of Fray Junipero Serra to the capital, had been 
accomplished, but not entirely to his satisfaction, for he 
had not been able to control the appointment of his suc- 
cessor. He had suggested that Ortega be given the Alta 
California command, but in the face of his recommendation, 
for the good and sufficient reason that Ortega lacked the 
requisite rank, was only a noncommissioned officer, a ser- 
geant, Rivera had been named. Yet, Serra had gained his 
point in everything that really mattered, and any on which 
he “lost out” would seem to have been more than com- 
pensated for. ‘The journey had been well worth while and 
a triumph, not only for Serra, but for the missions—for 
the missions as against the military had scored! 

In comparison with the rich harvest of success he had 
reaped, the few tares in the wheat were of little importance. 
He could “return very contented”’ and not ‘‘saddened,”’ and, 
as a matter of fact, he had every reason to go on his way 
rejoicing! 

In addition to supplies of many kinds: vestments, harness, 
iron, and a forge, etc., granted officially by the government 
for the Alta California establishments, the viceroy was 
very liberal in the way of alms—a limosna—for the 
exclusive use of the missions. ‘There were donations, also, 
from the piously inclined, the value of the whole running 
into many thousand pesos; there were bales, bolts, and 
packages of various materials, hundreds of yards: blue 
baize, blue maguey cloth, striped sackcloth, and one hundred 
and seven blankets. ‘There were reams of paper, boxes of 
chocolate, and panocha—brown sugar—barrels of lard, 
jugs of olive oil, maize, beans, and chick-peas, bales of red 
peppers, barrels of flour; and there were barrels of Cas- 


176 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


tilian wine and three barrels of brandy! Truly, a long and 
interesting list. 

After the decision of the junta had been rendered on 
May 6, many matters had detained the padre presidente 
at the capital, until it was now the middle of September and 
he was about to begin the long journey to Mission San 
Carlos. The story of his departure is best told by Engel- 
hardt: ‘‘When at last he saw that he had accomplished 
the object of his visit, and that in addition he was well 
provided with supplies, clothing, and presents for the 
Indians, the happy old man hastened to bid farewell to 
his brethren. The Fr. Guardian considerately gave him 
a companion in the person of Fr. Pablo Mugartegui, whom 
Fr. Serra accepted with delight. The whole community 
of the College of San Fernando then assembled in the 
refectory. By permission of the Fr. Guardian the ven- 
erable man then kissed the feet of every friar to the amaze- 
ment and edification of all. He moreover begged pardon 
of every one for the bad example which he might have 
given, and then, once more asking the Fr. Guardian’s 
blessing, he set out for San Blas accompanied by Fr. Pablo 
Mugartegui and the Indian youth whom he had brought 
from California.” 

This fifteen-year-old Indian boy, named by the mission- 
aries Juan Evangelista, had been confirmed on August 4, 
while at the capital, by Archbishop Peralta. 


In the matter of the Anza memorial to the viceroy, of 
May 2, 1772, to what extent was the decision rendered by 
the junta within that month, September, 1773, due to the 
influence of the padre presidente of the Californias, Fray 
Junipero Serra? 

Let us see: We know that the expedition now author- 
ized was no new idea; we know that the subject had been 
presented to the king in various memorials during the 
hiatus in the history of Alta California, 1603-1769; that 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 177 


Anza, father and son, had petitioned in regard to an over- 
land route to the northwest coast; that Bucareli was already 
interested in the project and seeking information and advice, 
before the proposal of Captain Anza of the Presidio of 
Tubac came before him; that the junta, convened to con- 
sider this proposal, had adjourned to await the Garcés 
diaries and other information requested, and that some 
answers had been received at the time of the arrival of 
Serra at the capital; that at an audience, Bucareli had 
requested Serra to submit to him a memorial of such matters 
as had been discussed by them at that time, to include 
Serra’s opinion as to the necessity for an overland route 
across the Colorado and Gila rivers into Alta California in 
its relation to the establishments there. 

It is evident, from all we know of Serra’s reasons for 
his journey to Mexico, that this had played but a small 
part, if any; nor, obviously, had he made a special appeal 
in regard to it. His opinion, as given, was merely included 
under one of the thirty-two heads in his representacion. 
Serra was there on other business: the removal of Fages, 
first and before all; and the retention, as vital to the suc- 
cess of his work, of the port of San Blas as a base of sup- 
plies, a separate petition for which, setting forth his reasons 
for its retention, was presented to the viceroy. After that, 
he was assuredly there for anything that would benefit his 
missions; and, naturally and also efficiently, taking advan- 
tage of the opportunity and the friendly reception accorded 
him by Bucareli, he petitioned at that time for everything 
that, in his judgment, would stabilize the work already done, 
or would be conducive to permanence and future welfare. 

In the sequence of this digest and deductions drawn from 
the basic motives for his journey to the capital, Serra’s 
share in influencing the decision of the junta in authorizing 
the Anza expedition does not stand out as tremendously 
important, and what share he is entitled to seems clear and 
uncomplicated: Serra’s opinion was merely one factor 


178 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


among many in bringing about the result; or, rather, it 
would seem uncomplicated had not several writers pre- 
sented the entire credit to him. The idea is conveyed, and 
it rather astounds one, that he, and he alone, was—‘‘some- 
thing behind the throne’”—responsible for the viceroy’s 
espousal of the cause and, consequently, indirectly influenced 
the junta to authorize the expedition. 

We are taught that desire affects the ground of belief. 
We know that is true. May not desire, then, explain many 
a lapse on the part of otherwise conscientious historians ? 
An overweening desire to award the laurel wreath to Serra 
in any matter reaching a successful conclusion in connection 
with the Californias of that time has, apparently, subcon- 
sciously affected the viewpoint of more than one. 

Serra needs no filching of laurels to add to his unques- 
tioned fame! 

In connection with the question as to who it was, more 
than another, who had influenced Bucareli, it is interesting 
to read an excerpt from a personal letter from him to Fray 
Francisco Hermenegildo Garcés, in which he says: ‘ ‘My 
consent that the expedition should be undertaken has been 
gained principally through the reports which Your Rever- 
ence communicated upon the results of your three suc- 
cessful journeys to the Colorado and Gila rivers’”’ 
(Engelhardt). 

Except as to the general advisability and the practicability 
of the undertaking, it may not be going very far afield to 
surmise that the great executive, Bucareli, reached a decision 
unaided. Just prior to the convening of the junta, the 
necessity for the overland route grew suddenly imperative. 
The viceroy was in receipt of what seems to have been 
secret information that the province was menaced by both 
Russia and England; and although, to all appearances, this 
was not regarded with grave concern by Spanish officials, 
the bogy of foreign encroachment probably played a hand 
in the game, in the authorization of the Anza expedition 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 179 


by the junta, without the knowledge of some of the 
participants. 

Preparations were also quietly made to reconnoiter the 
northwest coast. 


The Russian approach, now assuming a shape easily 
envisioned, began as far back as 1578, when Ermak Tim- 
ofeevich, leading ‘‘a life of war and plunder, . . . flying 
from justice as administered by Ivan Vassilievich II” (Ban- 
croft), led a band of one thousand raiding Cossacks over 
the Ural Mountains and conquered the little remnant of the 
Tartar kingdom on the river Ob. Announcing the conquest 
for Russia and sending a rich gift of sables, he bought his 
peace with the tsar, who conferred rulership upon him and 
furnished him with reénforcements. 

‘““Westward the course of empire takes its way,’’ but the 
Russian advance, thus set on foot, was relentlessly east- 
ward. 

The way across Asia was easy for the Cossacks of Russia. 
“The invaders found it well to divide their forces, and 
advance in small scattered bodies, a dozen warriors some- 
times subjugating a tribe . . .” (ibid.). Only a few 
hundred being “required for the occupation of a river- 
territory or a kingdom,” they established outposts and again 
advanced, until, at last, sixty years after Ermak turned his 
face toward the rising sun, another Cossack at the head of 
a small expedition, Andrei Kopylov, looked out over the 
Pacific. 

Nor did the shores of the great ocean stay the move- 
ment. Picking up the story after another eighty years or 
so, we find great activity by land and sea, caused, according 
to Bancroft, by the “excessive curiosity of Peter the Great”’ 
which “extended further than to ship-building, astronomy, 
and general geography.’’ However, Peter’s death did not 
give pause to his plans. The government was thoroughly 
interested in ‘American Siberia” and his instructions were 


180 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


faithfully carried out by his wife Catherine and, later, by 
his daughter Elizabeth. 

In 1728, Vitus Bering, a Dane in the service of Russia, 
sailed through the strait bearing his name, and from his 
advice plans for trade routes developed. In 1740, an 
expedition was despatched, one ship being commanded by 
Bering and another by Aleksiei Chirikov. On July 15, 1741, 
Chirikov reached the American coast at latitude 55°, re- 
turning to Kamchatka in October of that year. Bering 
made landfall on the American coast at 58°, the vessels 
having separated. His party was obliged to winter on 
Bering Island, where he died, his vessel not reaching Kam- 
chatka until 1742. In that year, Chirikov made another 
voyage, but did not reach America. 

Inspiration for other voyages lay in the otter skins 
brought back, and vessels were sent out as far as the 
Aleutian Islands, under private enterprise. In 1764, the 
Russian government was again interested, and the Krenit- 
zin-Levashef expedition of 1766-69 was the result. ‘This 
expedition got no farther than the Aleutian Islands. In 
1771, Levashef returned to St. Petersburg. 


In 1773, menace from the English appeared in the per- 
son of one Bings, who, it was reported, was preparing to 
lead an expedition, ostensibly in search of the North Pole, 
but in reality to the Californias in the interest of England. 
At this day, there seems nothing to prove that there ever 
was a Bings’ project; and yet, Bings was the reason for 
many rules and regulations for the protection of Alta Cali- 
fornia from foreign aggression, such as the following, given 
to Rivera, August 17, 1773: ‘‘ “The admission of foreign 
boats into the American ports of the king’s dominions is 
absolutely prohibited by the laws of the Indies, and it is 
commanded in many royal decrees and orders that this 
prohibition be observed; and there are also repeated decrees 
that commerce is not to be permitted, even in Spanish ships, 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 181 


on the coasts comprised in this viceroyalty, except in the 
ship from the Philippines, which comes to Acapulco, and 
the boats in the ship-yard of San Blas for the support of 
old and new California’”’ (Chapman). 

It was thought advisable for Rivera to explore and 
occupy the port of San Francisco. A complete inventory 
of artillery, arms, and ammunition was ordered. It begins 
to read rather like a joke perpetrated by the viceroy, but 
was not so meant, that he was to detain ships, take pris- 
oners, guard against surprise and other things, if his forces 
permitted, when we know how pitifully little, in reality, 
his forces permitted. [hese orders were not due to nery- 
ous apprehension, but, says Rivera, the historian—not the 
comandante,—to the fact that Bucareli “was ordered to 
exercise great vigilance over Pacific coast ports,’’ cognizance 
being taken, in these instructions, of reports of Russian 
aggression as well as of Bings. 


Padre Francisco Palou had been authorized to get 
together twenty-five native families from the frontier mis- 
sions and take them to Alta California as colonists upon 
completion of the transfer of the Baja California missions, 
and while arranging the final details of the transfer had 
also been attending to that. Many unnecessary difficulties 
had presented themselves, both in the indifference of the 
Dominicans and the open hostility of Governor Barri. It 
had been very uphill work and was not made easier when, 
in July, 1773, the weather-worn San Carlos, despatched 
from San Blas months before with supplies for San Diego 
and Monterey, having been blown almost to Panama, put in 
at Loreto without a rudder and leaking, discharged her 
cargo, and then proceeded on her way to San Blas for 
repairs. 

Because Fages had reported provisions enough to last 
out the year, and because of the report brought by the 
unlucky San Carlos that the governor was attending to 


182 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


the matter, Bucareli was not disturbed and gave no further 
thought to it. But Palou, knowing perhaps that no promise 
had been made—or knowing Barri and his ways,—felt that 
great privation would result at the missions in consequence 
of the nondelivery of the cargo at its proper destination. 
He, therefore, determined to suspend his recruiting and to 
go at once to San Diego with as much maize as his mules 
could carry, leaving the Indian families at Velicata in 
charge of Padre Cambon, as well as the cattle and church 
paraphernalia he had collected. ‘These church belongings 
and cattle became almost an affair of state, Governor Barri 
declaring them “stolen goods.” On July 21, with six friars 
and a guard of fourteen men, he began his journey to San 
Diego, and on the 26th, sent three soldiers ahead to notify 
Padre Paterna of their coming. 

One of the six friars was Fermin Francisco de Lasuén, a 
very able man, who, for that very reason, had been assigned 
to San Francisco de Borja, the most northerly mission 
founded by the Jesuits, which, being difficult to reach, had 
been neglected after their banishment. Again, because it 
was the farthest north, it had been more heavily drawn 
upon than the others for the Alta California missions. How 
to keep the mission from going to pieces had been the 
problem to be solved by him at San Francisco de Borja, 
the same as at all the missions, except that Padre Lasuén’s 
problem had been far more difficult and his solution the 
most brilliant. In 1768, he wrote to Galvez that the “real 
need at Borja was not reform or tobacco, but food and 
clothing, for ‘my children are most numerous, and hungry, 
and naked.’ In the five months (. . .) that he had been 
in charge of the mission he had not received a grain of aid 
from anywhere. 

‘In 1771 he was able to report that, so far as was known, 
there was not a single pagan left in the whole district. 
Notwithstanding a scarcity of water and cultivable land, 
Father Lasuén had planted vineyards, fig and pomegranate 


ee ee a ee 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 183 


trees, and some cotton” (Chapman). Serapes for the 
Indians were made of the cotton and blankets were woven 
of wool. In 1773, when the Dominicans succeeded the 
Franciscans, inventories showed that ‘San Francisco de 
Borja, though by no means a favored spot, had under its 
control nearly a fourth of the Indians in the missions and 
more than a fourth of the domestic animals” (ibid.). 

Although surrounded by humanity—lIndians, treacher- 
ous, ignorant, and dirty,—Padre Lasuén “held the fort” 
for five years alone, having’no companion missionary as 
was usual; with no one at all with whom to exchange an 
idea. For an educated man, a whole lifetime of martyr- 
dom could be compressed into those few years at that deso- 
late frontier mission! On the material side, there were 
hardships—many. [he most pressing need of the poor 
padre, at the time he was ordered to Alta California with 
Palou, was raiment, he having mended and patched the 
clothes he had brought with him five years before until 
there was nothing left with which to cover himself but 
patches and mending. 

On August 19, about five leagues beyond San Juan Bau- 
tista and fifteen below San Diego, a large cross was raised 
with appropriate ceremonies to mark the boundary between 
Franciscan and Dominican territory, bearing the inscrip- 
tion: “Division de las misiones de Nuestro Padre Santo 
Domingo y de Nuestro Padre San Francisco; Ato de 1773 
[ Boundary between the missions of Our Father St. Dominic 
and Our Father St. Francis; Year 1773].’”’ The raising of 
the cross was the great event of the journey. 

After notifying Padre Paterna of the coming of Palou, 
the soldiers, sent in advance, had gone on to Monterey to 
deliver the same message there, and to ask the comandante, 
Don Pedro Fages, for mules to bring up the supplies left 
by the San Carlos at Loreto. 

Padre Palou and his party reached San Diego on August 
30, having been met and welcomed a long way out on the 


184 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


road by the two friars from that mission. Relieving Padre 
Paterna, Palou now took charge pending Serra’s return. 
On September 19, a letter came from Fages, saying he was 
sending eighty-two mules, all he could get together. These, 
in charge of Ortega, were sent on south to the Peninsula 
three days later. 

On the 26th, Palou resumed his journey, leaving the 
friars at their respective stations and inspecting the mis- 
sions on the way in preparation for the report he had been 
instructed by the viceroy to make. He was met at San 
Luis Obispo by Don Pedro Fages, who had not yet been 
replaced by Rivera y Moncada; and a league from Mon- 
terey by Padre Juan Crespi, his old friend and schoolmate. 

On November 14, the usual salute was accorded him, 
followed by much ringing of bells, after which Padre Palou 
addressed the soldiers, hoping they would set a good 
example to the natives—a hope that was not likely to be 
fulfilled! 

He then proceeded to Mission San Carlos at Carmelo. 

Palou was enthusiastic over being at last at Monterey, 
a place he had wished to visit ever since reading, more 
than twenty years before, Torquemada’s description of the 
voyage of Vizcaino. Morever, he was willing to stay and 
devote his entire life to the work there. 

Padre Palou’s report to the viceroy was dated December 


I0,. 1773. 


XV 


Receiving word of the decision of the junta, followed by 
the viceregal decree authorizing him to lead an expedition 
into Alta California, Anza began preparations. 

On January 2, 1774, when all was about in readiness, a 
sudden raid on the caballada—horse drove—by Apaches, 
who stole more than one hundred horses, many of them 
destined for the expedition, handicapped the undertaking 
from the beginning. 

These raids, in which hundreds of horses were driven 
away, were no unusual thing, as we have learned from ref- 
erences in the various memorials presented to king and 
viceroy, from time to time, during a long period of years. 
Governor Sastre had made vigorous efforts to put a stop 
to this constant harassing of the frontier by Apaches and 
other Indians, but principally by Apaches, characteristically 
swooping down upon first one little settlement, then upon 
another, where, at the time, the least resistance could be 
offered. ‘This was very difficult to combat, when a mere 
handful of soldiers at a presidio was the only defense 
against hordes. 

A chain of presidios was now being established, with a 
“flying corps’? in connection. A comandante inspector, 
Hugo Oconor, had been appointed, who was to have no 
fixed abode but was to be where he was most needed, and 
to direct his attention especially toward the suppression of 
these raids. 

Governor Sastre having died, Francisco Crespo, the new 
Governor of Sonora, was to aid Anza in making arrange- 
ments for the expedition. ‘The stolen horses could not pos- 
sibly be replaced by any in proper condition for such a 


[ 185 ] 


186 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


journey, but, nevertheless, on January 8, a start was 
made from the Presidio of Tubac, and the long-discussed 
overland expedition into Alta California across the Gila 
and Colorado rivers was finally on its way. 

A few days later, the Presidio of Altar was reached, 
where a guide was to be added to the personnel—one 
Sebastian Tarabal, a Baja California Indian, who had 
accompanied the 1769 expedition. He and his wife had 
been taken to San Gabriel to live but, tiring of it, had 
run away with several others, including a brother of Tara- 
bal’s wife. All had perished on the desert save [arabal, 
who found his way to the territory of the Yuma Indians, 
one of whose chiefs conducted him to Altar, where he had 
arrived about a fortnight before. 

Anza decided to proceed via Papagueria, the land of the 
Papago Indians and free from Apaches. This route had 
been reported as good, either from Tubac or Altar, to the 
junction of the two rivers. Having failed to secure horses 
at Altar, Anza was promised them by Governor Crespo, 
at Caborca, the last settlement through which he would 
pass. ‘[he expedition was taking four months’ provisions, 
ammunition, and gifts for the Indians, and sixty-five head 
of cattle were being driven. Neither pack animals nor 
their own mounts were in good condition, and the horses 
found at Caborca were utterly unfit; but nothing was 
allowed to stand in the way. 

Besides Captain Juan Bautista de Anza, there were the 
two friars, Francisco Hermenegildo Garcés and Juan Diaz; 
Sebastian Tarabal, the Indian who was to act as guide 
beyond the Yuma territory; one soldier from California, 
Juan Bautista Valdés, to serve in that capacity at that end 
of the journey; there were twenty soldiers, not including 
Valdés; one Pima interpreter and eight other Indians 
(Anza’s two servants, five arrieros, and a carpenter): 

From Caborca Mission, their road lay across sterile 
thirty-four persons all told. 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 187 


Papagueria, where there was little pasturage; and part of 
it was by way of the terrible camino del diablo—devil’s 
road—with no inhabitants and only two aguages—places 
where there was water. The two rivers were finally reached 
and the crossing successfully made to San Dionisio, Isla de 
la Trinidad, a kind of island formed by a double channel 
of the Gila, one of the channels, perhaps, being dry except 
at high water. From there, on February 9, Anza wrote 
that no Spanish troops had ever before been so far except 
the soldiers with the Jesuits, and that on the morrow his 
expedition would press on beyond where even they had 
gone. : 

They were well received by the Yuma Indians, and enter- 
tained by Chief Salvador Palma, who had acted as guide 
to Tarabal. Anza described these Indians as tall and 
robust, and lighter in color than the Pimas. Among them, 
it was held to be womanish to cover their bodies and all the 
men were naked; their faces disfigured with paint; their 
ears pierced with from three to five holes, each with an 
earring of its own; and the cartilage of the nose pierced 
also, with a quill-like stick about eight inches long thrust 
through, or, in lieu of that, a bunch of feathers. For fear 
of disturbing the arrangement of their hair, which was 
dressed with mud, sprinkled with sparkling powder, and 
then allowed to dry, they were obliged to sleep sitting up! 
The women were large, also, and neither hideous nor very 
good looking. [hey were by way of being agriculturists, 
their land producing beans, squash, melons, much corn, and 
wheat better than that grown in Sonora. There were many 
of these Indians, for he had seen at least two thousand 
in about a league and a half. They were quite trouble- 
some, hanging around the camp, and, despite all tactful 
suggestions to the contrary, had insisted upon sleeping 
there. 

On February 10, Anza resumed his march, taking his 
way down the Colorado River, flowing due west at that 


188 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 
eet oe 


point, accompanied by Palma and by some six hundred 
Indians who insisted upon driving the horses, each horse 
having five or six in attendance. The expedition was thus 
escorted as far as Santa Olalla, the end of the Yuma juris- 
diction and the end of the known land. Beyond lay the 
territory of two fierce and warlike tribes, enemies of the 
Yumas. At this point, Chief Palma took leave of his new- 
found friends, promising to have rafts ready upon their 
return to convey the expedition across the river, which 
would be in flood at that time. 

A letter written by Captain Anza and sent by a Yuma 
Indian was delivered to Captain Bernardo de Urrea, at 
the Presidio of Altar, and from there, accompanied by a 
letter from him, was sent to Governor Crespo, who added 
another, despatching the sheaf to the viceroy. Bucareli 
then wrote one under date of May 27, 1774, forwarding 
copies of the others, enclosed with his, to Arriaga, calling 
his attention to salient parts: among others, that a Soyopa 
Indian had told of a western branch of the Colorado, which, 
perhaps, might be the river flowing into San Francisco Bay. 
He also wrote to O'Reilly, both letters evidencing deep 
interest in the attempt and great satisfaction over what 
had, so far, been accomplished. 

Anza had descended the river, hoping to avoid the 
stretches of sand in which Tarabal had been lost. ““These 
sand-hills of the Colorado desert reach from a point about 
thirty-five miles north of the [present] boundary line to 
some ten or twelve miles below it, the tract varying in 
width from ten to thirty miles. They are greatly dreaded, 
because their similarity of appearance is most bewildering 
and the constantly shifting sand quickly obliterates any 
trail made through them. It was to avoid these that the 
detour to the southwest into Lower California was made”’ 
(Eldredge). 

Tarabal was now of no use. Without a guide, the expe- 
dition struck out into the desert. With animals unfit from 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 189 


the start; with unavoidable wastes of sand to traverse; 
with no pasturage; with little water and that brackish—and, 
sometimes, none at all,—a time came when Anza saw the 
fate of other desert travelers pursuing them. He dis- 
cussed with the two friars the advisability of sending back 
to the Yuma rancheria half the baggage and half the men. 
Diaz agreed that it was the best thing to do, but Garcés, 
whose advice Anza had been instructed to follow because 
of his experience, saw no necessity for such a proceeding. 

A terrible day came, February 15, when high sand hills 
were encountered that could not be negotiated by the 
exhausted animals, and, to avoid these, the expedition 
turned to the south. ‘Thereupon, Garcés proposed to find 
a large rancheria in that vicinity which, two years before, 
he had named San Jacome. After several attempts and the 
wasting of time and fast-waning strength, with the animals 
dying and some of the men on foot, with the outlook grow- 
ing rapidly worse, San Jacome had not been located. 


Anza now consulted no one, but began a retreat, return- 
ing to Santa Olalla and arriving on the 19th. There the 
expedition remained for some days, resting and recuperating 
while new arrangements were made. 

Garces obtained a leave of five days, in order to visit 
some rancherias on the lower Colorado; but returned with- 
out having found them, these and San Jacome having evi- 
dently been abandoned. 

Salvador Palma, who had received Anza, upon his return, 
in the friendliest spirit, was much disturbed over the loss 
of the animals and the failure of the attempt to cross the 
Colorado Desert, and readily agreed to Anza’s plan to 
leave half the provisions and all the animals unfit to travel 
in his charge, with some muleteers and soldiers to care for 
and guard them. That they would better be left there, 
entrusted to Palma, than left on the road somewhere, as 
they surely would have to be, was obvious. According to 


190 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


his new plan, he would take provisions for one month only 
—more than enough to reach San Gabriel. Tarabal thought 
two weeks ample time in which to make the journey, and 
that, after the first week, there would be both good water 
and pasturage. No trouble with the Indians was antici- 
pated, for those they had encountered had seemed friendly 
enough. His men, even after their recent heartbreaking 
experience, declared they were ready to go with him on foot, 
if necessary. 

Entrusting to Salvador Palma a letter, dated February 
28, to be despatched to Bucareli, March 2 saw the greatly 
reduced expedition, with a caballeria—pack train—now 
numbering only eleven packs, again on the march. “wo 
days were given to a march down the river and, on the 
4th, a turn toward the mountains was made. A Cajuenche 
Indian was now their guide. At one place, they came upon 
a body of salt water with quantities of sea fish in it, which 
Anza thought must be a backwater of the Gulf of Cali- 
fornia, some thirty leagues away. 

The usual desert tragedies were encountered: bad water 
and no water; poor pasturage, when there was any, with 
sick animals in consequence. At last, when potholes were 
found filled up, their Cajuenche guide took to his heels, 
leaving them to whatever their fate might be! 

At last, some good wells were reached, where there was 
an abundance of fine water, and Tarabal began to get his 
bearings and to recognize landmarks. ‘These wells, which 
Anza named Pozos de Santa Rosa de las Lajas—Wells of 
St. Rose of the Flat Rocks—could have been reached in 
two forced marches from Santa Olalla, whereas the expedi- 
tion had struggled for six days on the way. 

Now came another wearisome desert march, the men on 
foot leading their horses; then wet land, a large cienega, 
was reached: ‘‘—the sink of the San Felipe river—at the 
base of the San Jacinto mountains, the western wall of the 


[Colorado] desert” (Eldredge). 


ee DE ae ea | eT a ee ee ey 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 191 


The account of the Anza expedition, to this point, has 
been drawn from Bancroft, Chapman, and Eldredge, but 
now all must give way to Zoeth Skinner Eldredge, who is 
an authority on this itinerary. 

On March 11, the Colorado Desert was left behind and 
the expedition wended its way into the San Jacinto Moun- 
tains. When camp was made for the night, there was only 
the scant pasturage furnished by mesquite. The Jndios 
Serranos—hill Indians—a poor, miserable, half-starved lot, 
but skillful in the use of the boomerang, cheered them 
with the news that four or five days away were people like 
themselves, and that the sea was but three days distant. 
Anza was sure the people described must be the Spaniards 
at San Diego, and the sea could only be the “Philippine 
Ocean.” 

Indians encountered as they journeyed on were all very 
much of a type but became increasingly impudent in manner 
and speech. Some who held the Spaniards’ amazed atten- 
tion, that, Anza said, could steal as dexterously with their 
feet as their hands, were called by him “danzantes’’ or 
“danzarines’—dancers—because their harangues were in- 
variably accompanied by gesticulations and violent move- 
ments of the feet. 

They proceeded in the ascent of the mountains, reaching 
an aguage, where they stopped to rest the sick animals. 
The next morning they continued up the cation, now begin- 
ning to rise sharply, turning from that into another, 
when, after a sharp climb of two leagues, the top of 
the range was attained. Anza says: ‘“ ‘This paraje is 
a pass and I named it El Puerto Real de San Carlos 
(the Royal Pass of San Carlos). From it may be 
discovered some very beautiful plains, green and flowery, 
and the sierra nevada with pines, oaks, and other trees 
proper to cold countries. In it the waters are divided, 
some running to the Gulf and others to the Philippine 
Ocean. Thus is it verified that the cordillera we are now 


192 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


in is connected with that of Baja California’”’ (Eldredge). 
The valley lying far below must have seemed unutterably 
beautiful to the desert-worn adventurers, as seen from 
this pass, incorrectly identified by Bancroft as the San Gor- 
gonio, the route followed by the Southern Pacific, accepted 
blindly and constantly reiterated until disproved by Mr. 
Eldredge. 

At that elevation of four thousand, seven hundred feet, 
with the night came rain and snow. No start was made 
until the afternoon of the next day; then a way was found 
“over the divide between [what are now] Vandeventer flat 
and Hemet valley,” nearly five thousand feet in altitude, 
and from there down the San Jacinto River. On March 19, 
camp was pitched beside a beautiful lake covered with white 
water fowl, and to this, in compliment to the viceroy, Anza 
gave the name of “Laguna de San Antonio de Bucareéli. 
This was San Jacinto lake” (ibid.). He was “enthusiastic 
in his description of the beautiful river, the trees, and the 
flowers. The river he named San José, and the San Jacinto 
valley he called La Valle Ameno de San José (The pleasant 
valley of San José). Into this pleasant valley comes the 
north fork of the San Jacinto river, a bounding, precipitous 
stream of such crystalline beauty that they named the gorge 
down which it runs La Canada del Paraiso—The Vale of 
Paradise” (ibid.). 

The Santa Ana River was reached at four o’clock of the 
next afternoon, but was running full and not to be forded; 
so a bridge had to be constructed, and was finished by night- 
fall! The next morning the river was crossed; and at 
seven leagues west-northwest, along the base of the sierra, 
camp was made in a flowery, fertile valley studded with 
willows and alisos, beside a clear, rushing mountain stream 
—San Antonio Creek—a little north and east of the pres- 
ent town of Pomona. 

Eight leagues ‘“‘the next day brought them at sunset, 
March 22nd, to the mission of San Gabriel where they 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 193 


were received by the padres with demonstrations of joy, 
the ringing of bells, and the singing of the Te Deum” 
(ibid.). 


After the long journey to Tepic from the capital, which 
Serra, triumphant, had left in September, 1773, he, Padre 
Mugartegui and the Indian boy had been obliged to await 
an opportunity to go to Alta California. ‘This did not 
present itself until January 24, 1774, on which day they 
sailed on the new fragata—frigate—Santiago, which had 
been in process of building when Serra had arrived at San 
Blas on November 4, 1772. Sometimes called the Neuva 
Galicia, and also a transport as well as a frigate, the new 
vessel built for the California service was under command 
of Captain Juan Pérez, so long commanding the San 
Antonio, also known as El Principe. On board were the 
new surgeon, José Davila, and his family; Juan Soler, the 
storekeeper for Monterey; three blacksmiths and their 
families; and three carpenters. 

Of those who were to go north under the various new 
arrangements, at that date, January 24, Padre Palou was 
already at Mission San Carlos and had been there for some 
time, acting during Serra’s absence as presidente; Captain 
Juan Bautista de Anza was struggling through the wastes 
of Papagueria; while Captain Rivera y Moncada had not 
as yet set himself upon his way to Monterey to assume 
command, displacing Don Pedro Fages. 


On July 18 of the year before, 1773, the viceroy had 
ordered Captain Juan Pérez to draw up a plan for north- 
ern exploration by sea. On September 1, the plan was 
ready, and approved by the viceroy on the 29th. As formu- 
lated by Pérez, latitude 40° to 50° was to be reached, 
but this, Bucareli changed to 60°. Bucareli had obtained 
permission to despatch expeditions and to appropriate funds 


194 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


for the purpose without consulting any one or calling a 
junta, for purposes of secrecy in investigating rumors cir- 
culating as to the Englishman, “Bings,” and contained in 
the reports of the Spanish ambassador at the court of 
Russia, of unpleasant possibilities from that quarter. 

The Santiago was provisioned for a year; was to make 
the port of Monterey; and without delay, after delivering 
passengers and cargo, was to put to sea again, proceeding 
according to sealed orders, dated December 24, 1773, to 
be opened after leaving port. Some of the secret orders 
given Don Juan Pérez are not without interest: he was 
to reach 60° before turning about, scrutinizing the coast 
upon the return voyage; should conditions permit, he was to 
land, take possession, but make no settlement. ‘If a for- 
eign establishment should be discovered, he was to land 
north of it, and take possession, leaving evidences of his 
act. He must not communicate with such foreign estab- 
lishment, but should view it from afar, getting in that way 
all the information that he could. He was to avoid ships 
that he might meet, or, if compelled to communicate with 
them, was to conceal his real objects. . . . He was to find 
out whether the Indians had ever seen boats before or any 
foreigners... . In entering Monterey or San Diego he 
was to hoist a certain signal, of which Rivera had been 
advised, so that he might know that Pérez’s was not a 
foreign ship. . . . his principal object was to explore the 
coast in search of foreign establishments... . Russian 
maps .. . were being given to him, . . . and, finally, he 
was assured that he would be rewarded according to his 
deeds” (Chapman). 

After a comparatively good trip, the Santiago put in at 
San Diego, on March 13, 1774, contrary to orders, but 
because of an accident which was a blessing, and one not 
long ‘‘in disguise,” for mission and presidio were found 
in a state of famine due to the nonarrival of the San Carlos 
the year before. Evidently, Padre Palou’s efforts to bring 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 195 


the provisions up by pack train had been, in great part, 
unavailing. 


In Sinaloa, Rivera had succeeded in getting together 
fifty-one persons, men, women, and children, to go to Alta 
California. Most of the soldiers recruited were married 
men; but it is impossible to say how many soldiers there 
were, as no roster seems to exist. It is thought there were 
about twelve. 

Rivera had left the capital in September, 1773, on this 
recruiting trip, under orders, also, to join forces and 
cooperate with Anza upon the latter’s arrival in Alta Cali- 
fornia; but, as he did not reach Loreto until March, 1774, 
having crossed the gulf on the Concepcion, it must have 
been an extremely difficult mission to execute and the results 
were certainly not dazzling. Not being able to secure pro- 
visions enough for his entire party on the march northward, 
he determined to go on ahead, taking with him a few 
soldiers, and to send back what was needed from San 
Diego. Putting Ortega, now a lieutenant by brevet, in 
command, he began his journey on March 20. Anza, with 
whom he was to cooperate, had already ‘“‘emerged”’ into 
Alta California, and on that very day, and ‘“‘before sunset,” 
had built a bridge of boughs over the Santa Ana River, 
over which the expedition passed on the following morning. 

Provisions were running low by the time the Anza expedi- 
tion reached San Gabriel, and the mission there was found 
in great straits for food. Friars and soldiers were subsist- 
ing on three tortillas—corn cakes—a day, which they 
added to as best they could by seeking wild herbs, each for 
himself. Even with the greatest care, however, the maize 
on hand could last only one month more! Nevertheless, 
something had to be done in honor of Captain Anza’s 
arrival, and so a cow was killed that there might be meat 
to set before their guest. 

They generously offered to supply the Anza expedition 


196 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


out of their little store until his soldiers were sufficiently 
recuperated to go to San Diego where—contrary to the 
viceroy’s orders—the Santiago, with Fray Junipero Serra 
on board, had put in on March 13, nine days before the 
arrival of the Anza party at San Gabriel, and, to relieve 
conditions, had landed some provisions. 

Captain Anza despatched, on the 24th, after two days’ 
rest, four men and seven mules to the port, sending letters 
to the comandante of the presidio and Captain Pérez of 
the Santiago, asking for horses and provisions with which 
to continue his march to Monterey. On the 5th of April, 
they returned, bringing some damaged maize, a sack of 
dried meat not fit to eat, a sack of flour, and two fanegas 
—something more than two bushels—of beans; these last, 
useless, as the Anza party carried no pots in which to cook 
them. They brought no horses; there were none to bring. 
The horses of the expedition had been through a very great 
deal and had been unfit for the journey at the start, but 
no others could be procured. 

That there might be fewer mouths to feed at the mission, 
Anza arranged that Padre Garcés, twelve soldiers, and two 
arrieros should return to the Colorado River and await 
him there; Juan Valdés, of this party—the Alta California 
soldier-guide—was to go on to the Presidio of Altar, and 
from there to the capital with diaries and letters for the 
viceroy. 

Leaving Padre Diaz, with two soldiers, at San Gabriel 
to await his return, Captain Anza, with six soldiers re- 
tained as his escort, left there on April 10 and proceeded 
to Monterey. 

On the 13th, Garcés and those detailed to accompany 
him left San Gabriel on their way back to the Colorado, 
returning as they had come except for two short cuts; and 
without mishap except for some little trouble with the 
Indians, who killed a horse for the meat. They were met 
in the friendliest way by Palma, who ferried them across 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 197 


the river on the rafts already prepared, according to prom- 
ise, for Anza upon his return. ‘he men who had been left 
there when the expedition had made its second start, having 
heard that the Anza party had perished, had taken the 
horses and gone to Tubac; but everything else had been 
carefully guarded and was intact; indeed, more was turned 
over to Garcés than had been inventoried, for some of the 
cows had calves. Accompanied by two soldiers, Juan 
Valdés, Anza’s courier to the viceroy, proceeded on his way 
to Altar and from there to the capital. 

Serra disembarked at San Diego, wishing to proceed 
overland, and began his journey from that place northward 
on April 6. Mugartegui, his friar companion from the 
College of San Fernando, landed there also, and, not being 
in good health, remained, his place on the Santiago being 
taken by another friar. The Santiago sailed on April 5 
or 6. 

Captain Anza arrived at the Presidio of Monterey on 
April 18, where he was most cordially received and con- 
gratulated upon his achievement by Don Pedro Fages. The 
friars came over from Carmelo, to rejoice with the rest and 
add their congratulations. On the following day, Captain 
Anza returned their visit. 

He found Monterey much nearer starvation than San 
Gabriel, and did not dally there to help consume what little 
there was. Friday, the 22d, saw him on the return march, 
taking with him six of Fages’ soldiers that he might show 
them the way to the two rivers. 


Of conditions at that time, Padre Palou writes in his 
Noticias (first referring to the San Carlos, despatched by 
the viceroy at Serra’s request, having to land at Loreto 
provisions intended for Alta California) : ‘ “The provisions 
were landed, but as there were no means to forward them 
overland, the worst famine reigned that was ever suffered 
in those regions of Monterey. During eight months milk 


198 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


was the manna for all from the comandante and the Fathers 
down to the least individual, and I shared it with the 
rest... . At this Mission of San Carlos, for thirty- 
seven days we were without as much as a crumb of bread or 
a tortilla. The meals consisted of a gruel made of chick- 
peas or beans ground to flour with which milk was mixed. 
In the morning a little coffee took the place of chocolate’ ” 
(Engelhardt). The arrival, on May 8 or 9, of the Santiago 
relieved the distress; and the neophytes, who had been sent 
out to shift for themselves, returned. 

Somewhere along the Santa Barbara Channel coast, on 
the sixth day’s march from Monterey, Captain Anza met 
the padre presidente, Fray Junipero Serra, journeying 
northward, inspecting the missions from which he had been 
so long absent; and with him Captain Anza remained for 
the rest of the day and spent the night, giving Serra an 
account of his journey, continuing his march on the follow- 
ing morning and reaching San Gabriel on the first day of 
May. 

On the 3d, with Padre Juan Diaz and the two soldiers 
left there with him, Captain Anza proceeded on his way, 
returning as he had come, except that he took advantage of 
short cuts, as had Garcés, greatly reducing the number of 
leagues traveled. There was also some little trouble with 
the Indians. By a forced march, also, the time was short- 
ened, and the expedition reached Santa Olalla on May g, 
proceeding up the Colorado River to the junction of the 
Gila, and, on the roth, being given an enthusiastic welcome 
by Palma, who informed Captain Anza that Garcés was 
_ encamped on the other side of the river and that the live 
stock had been delivered to him. The expedition was rafted 
across the river, six hundred varas—sixteen hundred and 
fifty feet—at that place, some five hundred Indians swim- 
ming beside the rafts to safeguard the passage. The Garcés 
camp was reached at about five o’clock in the afternoon. 

Presenting the Yuma chief with his stafi—baton—as a 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 199 


badge of office, some articles of dress, and four oxen, and 
enjoining him to keep the peace he had announced to the 
Indians along the way as now existing among all the tribes, 
Captain Anza took up his line of march on the 15th, pro- 
ceeding up the Gila, past the Papagos, Cocomaricopas—or 
Maricopas, as they are now,—and Pimas-Gilenos, announc- 
ing that among all the tribes formerly at war with one 
another peace had come to stay. ‘This decree had been 
accepted by all the Indians along his line of march, and 
arrows were broken as a token. 

At the Pima pueblo of Tucson, where he arrived on the 
25th, despatches awaited him, requesting him to hasten to 
Tubac because of danger from Apaches. Starting before 
dawn on the next morning, the 26th, and making a forced 
march, he was at his own presidio at sunrise of the next 
day, May 27, 1774. 

The purpose of the expedition had been accomplished: 
a way had been found overland, across the Gila and Colo- 
rado rivers, to Monterey, the outpost of New Spain on the 
Pacific. Not a man had been lost, the King’s Road was 
now open, and with it another line of communication to the 
aid of the ill-nourished, weakling, and failing establishments 
in Alta California. 

The long-cherished wish of Anza of Fronteras had been 
consummated; and he, Juan Bautista de Anza of Tubac, 
had done that which, since his boyhood, he had wished to 
do; and, for all, he gave thanks to the Lord God of Armies. 


XVI 


Two stars of state in the ascendant in the political firma- 
ment of New Spain now appear in conjunction in the persons 
of Antonio Maria Bucareli y Ursa and José de Galvez 
Gallardo. 

Because of his intimate knowledge of California affairs, 
his interest in them, and his official capacity as a member 
of the Council of the Indies, Galvez continued to be a 
factor in their administration after his return to Spain. 
Bucareli’s official communications and their enclosures, in 
reference to such as were uppermost in 1773, in due time 
reached Galvez, transmitted by Arriaga, and were in turn 
reviewed by him in a memorial to Arriaga under date of 
March 8, 1774. 

These Galvez criticisms of matters promulgated under 
the Bucareli régime afford a slight basis for comparison, 
yet no standard of measurement for one is entirely appli- 
cable to the other. The two were radically dissimilar. 

To the ordinary reader, Galvez stands out as an 
organizer of new work—facile, brilliant. In Bucareli is 
seen a great executive, carefully selecting and using to 
advantage the best, the most necessary, the most feasible 
of the innumerable plans and specifications presented to 
him for consideration. ‘This evaluation may be due to the 
angle from which they are viewed in their respective official 
positions. But it is impossible to envision them exchanged. 


In the memorial referred to, Galvez regarded the 
“removal of Fages, without hearing from either Fages or 
Barry . . . as a mistake, but as it had . . . taken place, 
Fages might be promoted to the command of a frontier 

[ 200 ] 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 201 


presidio. Rivera could not compare with Fages in spirit, 
resolution, and military knowledge, wherefore, Galvez 
felt that the very important Alta California establishments 
might be in grave danger, since they had to confront a 
vast native population, and were exposed to the repeated 
attempts of the Russians and the subjects of other powers 
who had upon various occasions made land in those seas”’ 
(Chapman). 

Events in connection with Rivera’s administration of his 
new Office, following quickly upon the very heels of the date 
of the Galvez memorial, are vastly more interesting if his 
accurate summing up of the qualifications of the two officers 
is borne in mind. Galvez knew them both thoroughly, 
having been in a position when in Baja California as visi- 
tador to compare, as to character and ability, the one with 
the other. 

Galvez had something to say as to the transfer of the 
Peninsula missions, in effect that neither he nor Croix had 
wished to have the two orders, Dominicans and Francis- 
cans, in the Californias. 

He considered the Department of San Blas indispensable. 

These, the Serra representacion, the authorization of the 
junta in the matter of the Anza proposal, and others sub- 
mitted to him at the date of the memorial had long since 
gone forward in the ordinary course of official routine, and 
the Echeveste provisional reglamento had been in force 
since January I. 

Among other things, Galvez approved Serra’s recom- 
mendation of mixed marriages in so far as it meant mar- 
riages between whites and Indians or mestizos—part white 
and part Indian—but not between whites and mulattoes. 
This point, it seems, had not been taken up in the regla- 
mento or touched upon by the junta. 


In the spring, April or May, of 1773, under command 
of Captain Juan Pérez, the San Carlos, despatched, at 


202 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


Serra’s request, by the viceroy, Bucareli, with provisions 
for the Alta California establishments, departed from San 
Blas, bound for San Diego and Monterey. It has been 
seen that these ports were never reached, but that the San 
Carlos had put in at Loreto and discharged her cargo there. 
Instead of assisting in the delivery of these goods, as the 
viceroy had been given to understand was his intention, 
Governor Felipe Barri, according to Palou, placed an 
embargo upon them. In consequence, famine reigned for 
many months at all the missions. We have had a little 
insight as to the situation at San Gabriel when the Anza 
expedition reached there. We know that at Mission San 
Carlos it was even worse. Says Palou: “‘ ‘When Captain 
J. B. Anza arrived with his Sonora troops, we had not 
even a cake of chocolate to set before him for breakfast. 
The whole food was reduced to milk and herbs without 
bread or anything else’”’ (Engelhardt). 

This distress had been relieved by the arrival at Mon- 
terey of the Santiago, on May 9, 1774. ‘Two days later, 
on the 11th, the padre presidente reached there, coming 
overland from San Diego, having been absent from Alta 
California more than a year and a half, and from his own 
mission, San Carlos Borromeo at Carmelo, about one year 
and nine months. 


On Saturday, May 23, Captain Rivera y Moncada 
arrived at the Presidio of Monterey, and, in no very 
courteous way, on the Monday following, presented his 
credentials to Captain Don Pedro Fages, who was thereby 
relieved as military commander in Alta California and as 
Lieutenant Governor of the Californias. 

A very thin line divides tragedy and comedy in the admin- 
istration of Rivera in Alta California. The curtain is rung 
up, immediately upon his arrival, on the drama in which 
even this thin line is, at times, lost sight of and the two 
are indistinguishable. 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 203 


Fernando Xavier de Rivera y Moncada of the cavalry— 
soldados de cuera—had entered the service in 1742, and 
worked up from the ranks to his captaincy. He had led 
the first division up the Peninsula in 1769, breaking the 
trail into Nueva California, followed by Captain Don 
Gaspar de Portola with the second division. 

In arranging and despatching the expedition, Don José 
de Galvez, the visitador, had seemed to accord preference 
to Lieutenant Don Pedro Fages of the Catalan Volunteers. 
This had not been unnoticed by Rivera. Again, upon the 
withdrawal of Don Gaspar de Portola, Fages, of inferior 
rank, was left in command. Rivera became very bitter 
because of this preferment of Fages over himself. It had 
rankled and had not ceased rankling. 

On March 2, 1770, he wrote to Viceroy de Croix, apply- 
ing for leave to retire from the service because of ill health. 
This was granted him on the following November 12, but 
when he attempted to make use of the privilege and set 
out for the south he was ordered by Governor Barri to 
return. This he reported to the viceroy in a letter of 
May 31, 1771. Under date of September 12, of the same 
year, official permission came to him for the second time, 
which, when available, had been prayed for by him nearly 
two years before—a very trying delay for a man worn out 
by a long, hard service and broken in health! 

Upon leaving the army, he bought a farm near Guadala- 
jara, but the venture was not successful; and he was obliged 
to reénter the service in order to support his family and, 
if possible, to pay his debts. 

Rivera had asked that he be not sent to Alta California, 
but this Bucareli had disregarded. So we find him there 
against his inclination and in the army again from sheer 
necessity. Years of active frontier service had broken him 
physically; seeming injustice, over which he had brooded, 
had done its work; misfortune and debt overtaking him 
had forced his return to the army, despite his failing health; 


204 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


and all tended to undermine mental and moral stamina. 
Finding himself in a position beyond his capacity may have 
completed the mischief. 

His erratic behavior, considered from the psychological 
standpoint, seems to have been the result of what had pre- 
ceded it and forces the conclusion that Rivera was not at 
all times quite responsible; otherwise, his conduct during 
his incumbency would be incomprehensible. 


Captain Don Pedro Fages, Lieutenant Governor of the 
Californias, had been in Alta California for about five 
years, coming in 1769 on board the unlucky San Carlos, 
with his twenty-five Catalan Volunteers. For a little less 
than four years he had been accorded all the deference 
due his office, and was in undisputed control except for 
differences with Padre Presidente Fray Junipero Serra, in 
which the padre presidente had ended victor. 

With his dignity offended by Rivera’s discourtesy and, 
doubtless, fully aware of his long smoldering, unfriendly 
feeling toward him, Don Pedro, being human, did not 
resist the temptation presented in an alluring opportunity 
to give the superseding officer in his turn a few unpleasant 
quarter hours. 

Rivera, with few words and no unnecessary phrases of 
civility, taking advantage of his new authority to the full, 
ordered Fages to close up his accounts and hold himself 
in readiness to sail on the San Antonio. 

Fages, a trained and tried officer, of course had no inten- 
tion whatever of disobeying the orders of the viceroy but, 
nevertheless, he replied that he wished to embark at San 
Diego to procure there certain receipts from friars and 
petty officers in order to complete his report. This Rivera 
refused to countenance, replying, ‘‘ “The viceroy does not 
order me to allow the volunteers and you to embark at 
San Diego, but simply by the first vessel. His excellency 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 205 


knows very well that this presidio is the capital where you 
reside; therefore, this is the place he speaks of, and from 
this place you must sail’”’ (Bancroft). 

Whereupon, Don Pedro played a trump card and, as 
he might, had he been so minded, have done in the first 
place, produced a permit signed by the viceroy, and of 
later date than Rivera’s instructions, for him to sail from 
San Diego. To this there was no possible ‘“‘retort courte- 
ous” or discourteous. 

But that was not soul satisfying enough for the departing 
Fages, who seemed bent on infuriating Rivera. He now 
announced that some animals he had for his own use he 
proposed to take to San Diego with him. Rivera promptly 
replied that he absolutely refused to allow any such out- 
rageous appropriation of the king’s property. Thereupon 
Fages furnished proof conclusive that the mules in question 
were not the king’s property, but his own; and thus once 
more he scored! 

Now, again, he declared that the rendition of his accounts 
could not possibly be completed in time for him to sail on 
the San Antonio. In answer to this came an insolently 
worded permission from Rivera to sail by the Santiago. 
Evidently satisfied at having drawn forth this answer— 
and gained his point—Don Pedro decided to go at once and 
leave his accounts to be made up by a clerk! 

This story is built upon Rivera’s own letters, which are 
amply sufficient to give an excellent idea of the clash by 
correspondence between these two officers—probably within 
a very few yards of one another—without Fages’ letters, 
which have not turned up. 

If, after Rivera’s first affront, Fages made up his mind 
deliberately to “bait”? the new comandante in order to 
infuriate him, he must have been gratified with the result, 
for he succeeded most admirably in doing so! 

On July 19, Captain Fages, displaced at Serra’s request 


206 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


—but neither humiliated nor defeated,—set out overland 
for San Diego, sailing from there on August 4 on the San 
Antonio. | 


In those days, not only was an expediente an enormous 
collection of documents even in a simple matter, but written 
communications in New Spain seem often to have been 
lengthy, verbose, wandering, which last may be somewhat 
the fault of the translator. Sometimes the real raison 
d’étre is so hidden in verbiage that it is as difficult to find 
as ‘two grains of wheat in two bushels of chaff.” They 
were prodigal of words in more ways than one; for instance: 
in the names of places. No examples need be given. “He 
who runs, may read’’ them, strewn all along the way in the 
history of Spanish California. 

Padre Palou’s report was replied to by the viceroy, under 
date of May 25, 1774, from which a few excerpts are 
taken: ‘‘‘I have received the report and description which 
Your Reverence prepared with such method and detail 
about the new establishments and missions. This informa- 
tion gratifies me exceedingly by reason of the thorough 
knowledge which it affords of the fertility and suitability 
of the land for erecting other missions, . . . and by reason 
of other things which Your Reverence explains in detail in 
your letter of December roth, 1773. With a full knowl- 
edge of all this the Rev. Fr. Junipero Serra goes away 
charged to exert all his energies for the benefit of the 
missions, the erection of others, not counting those pro- 
jected a) 

‘‘T suppose that when Your Reverence has received this 
you will have had the pleasure of seeing the establishments 
relieved somewhat by means of the frigate with which 
Fr. Junipero Serra has sailed, and by means of the packet- 
boat El Principe (San Antonio) which followed her with 
what supplies I was able to furnish her in consequence 


hep: 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 207 


of my orders. The San Carlos, which I have equipped for 
the same purpose, will not tarry to sail out from San 
Blas . 

‘““T do not believe that the pleasure of Your Reverence 
has been lessened in seeing communication opened between 
yonder coast and the province of Sonora. I trust Captain 
Juan Bautista de Anza has returned with his expedition; 
for under date of the gth of February, from the place 
called San Dionisio, he sends me the news of the success 
with which he had passed the rivers Colorado and Gila, 
and with which he also traveled among unknown Indian 
tribes, . . . and of the good treatment he received among 
the Yuma tribe and from their chief Palma. . . 

“The new commander of the presidios, Don Fernando 
de Rivera y Moncada, also wrote me from Loreto under 
date of March 20th, that he had resolved to make the 
journey by land with fifty-one persons . . . and would 
direct them to march straight for San Diego. Computing 
the dates, it may be concluded with reason that these two 
oficials have met on the road, or that they succeeded in 
meeting at that establishment or at Monterey. In what- 
ever manner it may have occurred, I hope that, through 
the union of said two expeditions there will be gained a 
number of men capable of attending to anything; that the 
vicinity and the locality where the Port of San Francisco 
is situated will be better surveyed, and that with more cer- 
tainty than was obtained so far the founding of the missions 
intended there will be planned, for the purpose of holding 
that region securely, and of extending the conquest. Of 
these results I wish to be advised, and to this end I hope 
that Your Reverence, while continuing your laudable labors, 
will inform me about everything minutely, as I ask and 
charge you. God keep Y. R. many years. Mexico, 
May 25th, 1774. [Signed] Antonio Maria Bucareli y 
Ursia.’” 


This letter was turned over to Serra by Palou, and the 


208 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


next day, Fray Junipero, who had been waiting for an 
auspicious moment to broach the subject of Mission San 
Francisco and other things, read the letter to Rivera. But 
they were still short of soldiers, those recruited not having 


as yet arrived. 


Dae: Berea TRS: 


XVII 


Don Antonio Bucareli y Ursua, the viceroy, was well 
pleased with the news received in June of the arrival of 
the overland expedition in Alta California, brought to the 
capital by the courier, Juan Valdés, despatched in April 
from San Gabriel with reports, by Don Juan Bautista de 
Anza. 

So well pleased was he that he enclosed copies of Anza’s 
diary and letters to Arriaga, suggesting that he be made 
lieutenant colonel and that soldiers who had accompanied 
him be given extra pay for life, as a reward and as an 

incentive to others. 

But, on the other hand, he was not at all pleased with 
news innocently let slip by Valdés, who stated that after 
the expedition had reached Mission San Gabriel he had been 
sent to San Diego to bring up provisions and, while there, 
had been on board the Santiago. To him, there was nothing 
at all extraordinary in this, he being, of course, in ignorance 
of the real reason for the despatching of the vessel. But 
the bare statement that the Santiago had touched at San 
Diego, contrary to his (Bucareli’s) express orders, was 
sufficiently extraordinary for the viceroy to cause his deposi- 
tion to be taken by his secretary, Melchor de Peramas, and 
to become the subject of letters to Arriaga. 

In his declaration, June 14, 1774, among other things, 
Valdés deposed that he had seen the Santiago at San Diego 
and had gone on board; all were well; she had been there 
two weeks, being stopped at Padre Serra’s request, in order 
that supplies might be left for the southern missions; that 
her masts were too high, and that masts were being cut for 


[ 209 ] 


210 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


the vessel; he had seen the padre presidente, who was well 
and was on his way overland to Monterey. 

Bucareli was naturally astonished that Pérez had put 
in at San Diego, orders given him having been to proceed 
direct to Monterey. Except in serious necessity, he was 
not to touch at San Diego; and, for that reason, the viceroy 
had the Valdés declaration taken. He wrote to Arriaga 
that, as a matter of fact, the Santiago seemed to have had 
an easy voyage and to have made the stop to shorten a 
mast, or at the request of Serra, who had been willing to 
be set down at Monterey when he started. He was wait- 


ing, he said, to be further informed as to the reason for 


the stop. 


In the first venture, the expedition overland into Alta 
California under Captain Anza, success had been achieved 
—a way had been found across rivers, desert, and moun- 
tains to the shore of the great ocean. Already, His Excel- 
lency, the viceroy, was considering a second expedition 
made up in a different way with a different object in view: 
colonization, one step beyond presidios and missions—a 
feeble attempt toward which had been made in the groups 
collected by Palou and Rivera—the third phase of Spanish 
conquest. 

Anza was again to be in command; definite information, 


in his letters and diary, was at hand; and preliminaries, 


such as might be, were being pushed. But, before details 
could be arrived at and final arrangements made, his pres- 
ence would be necessary, and Don Juan Bautista was now 
on his way. 


Captain Anza had arrived at Tubac on May 26, intent 
on proceeding direct to the capital according to orders to 
present his report to the viceroy in person, but was detained 
there by Antonio Bonilla (assistant inspector under Hugo 


ke ee os 
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SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 211 


Oconor) until the inspection of the presidio was com- 
pleted. 

After Bonilla’s departure, he sent back secret orders to 
Anza to go to the Presidio of Terenate and take command. 
Graft at this presidio by the captain and habilitado—pay- 
master—had gone to such lengths that a riot had resulted, 
followed by the arrest of Captain José de Vildosola. In 
this emergency, because of his long experience in the man- 
agement of troops and his capability, and because no other 
oficer of sufficient ability was available, Bonilla pounced 
upon Anza. He explained all this in a letter to Oconor 
and that he had gone so far as to suggest to Governor 
Crespo to relieve the situation so that Captain Anza might 
proceed to the capital. Meanwhile, Anza was held at 
Terenate pending the appointment of some one to the 
command. 

When his plans had been thwarted upon arrival at Tubac, 
he had written to the viceroy, explaining his predicament. 
Now, with everything in readiness and waiting for him, 
came news that he had been detained to await action by 
Governor Crespo. 

Bucareli was very indignant and expressed himself freely 
on the subject in a letter dated August 27, to Arriaga. 
He wrote that he felt that nothing in the affairs of Sonora 
could be more important than what Anza had accomplished. 
He had given definite orders to Bonilla and there should 
have been no delay in their execution. Therefore, he had 
ordered Governor Crespo to arrange at once for the relief 
of Anza. 

He was distinctly incensed—and justly so—at Bonilla’s 
presumption in setting aside his official instructions, no 
matter what had been his reason for so doing. 


The Santiago was ready, on June 6, to proceed on the 
voyage planned for her to 60°, but was held port-bound 
by contrary winds and waiting for favorable weather, when, 


212 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


on the 8th, the supply ship San Antonio put in, having 
missed the harbor of San Diego, and instead of putting 
about had kept on to Monterey—the first vessel to make 
that port without touching at San Diego. 

The San Antonio was commanded by José Canizares, 
erstwhile pilotin—master’s mate—of the San Carlos, who 
had been detached to act as cosmographer for the first 
division of land forces under Rivera y Moncada, in the 
expedition of 1769. 

Padre Juan Crespi, better known to us, had been named 
by the padre presidente to accompany the Santiago expedi- 
tion under Captain Juan Pérez, in place of Padre 
Mugartegui, who was not well enough to undertake the 
onerous duties expected of friars on voyages for purposes 
of exploration. The College of San Fernando was required 
to send them, but such assignments were greatly disliked. 

On the voyage, the friar was to take the latitude and 
make observations; and, besides, a description of the natives 
encountered, was to keep a detailed diary of these things 
and all else necessary to a full record. There were besides, 
of course, masses to be said, novenas, ministrations for the 
sick—whatever appertained to his calling. 

Of his appointment, Crespi writes: ‘ ‘Notwithstanding 
my great fatigue after so many expeditions by land, I sacri- 
ficed myself in order to take part in this enterprise in con- 
formity with my vow of obedience, . . . but I had the 
consolation that, by dint of entreaty, the said Fr. Presidente 
obtained from His Excellency the favor that Fr. Tomas de 
la Pena should go with me as a companion.’” In other 
words, Serra had to obtain this permission from the viceroy. _ 

“On Monday evening, June 6th, 1774, we arrived (from 
San Carlos) at the royal presidio. After taking leave of 
the captains and of Fathers Murguia and Palou, who were 
hearing the confessions of the crew that was to make the ~ 
voyage, we went to the beach. We took leave of the © 
Rev. Fr. Presidente, . . . and then went aboard the ship. — 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 213 


Seeing that we could not sail, we two Fathers went ashore 
and to the fort. This afternoon, Thursday 9th, Don Juan 
Pérez requested that on the next day a holy Mass should 
be sung on the shore in honor of Our Lady for the success 
of the voyage. On Friday roth the altar was erected under 
a shelter of boughs on the very site where the holy Mass 
was celebrated on the 17th of December, 1602, during 
the expedition of General Sebastian Vizcaino, and on the 
3d of June, 1770, when a settlement was founded at this 
port, and the first High Mass was sung by the Rev. Fr. 
Presidente. He likewise sang the holy Mass today. . . 
We all dined together near the old oak which Sennstian 
Vizcaino saw. After dinner we went aboard the ship’ ” 
(Engelhardt). 

On the 11th, the Santiago finally got under way, but on 
the 28th, because of dense fogs and contrary winds, while 
some two hundred leagues off the coast, was still in the lati- 
tude of Monterey. On July 15, 45°, 35’ was reached, with 
very cold weather. On that day, a turn landward was 
made, no land having been sighted so far because of dense 
fogs. Preparations were now begun for taking possession 
as soon asa landing could be made. On July 16, at latitude 
51°, 42’, “ ‘the carpenters constructed a wooden cross about 
five varas [thirteen feet nine inches] in height. The 
inscription on the upper part was I.N.R.I. [‘‘Jesus Naza- 
renus, Rex Judeorum; Jesus of Nazareth, King of the 
Jews’ ]; along the body of the cross between the arms and 
the foot, Carolus Tertius, Rex Hispaniarum [Charles 
Third, King of Spain], and on the arms, dio de 1774” 
(ibid.). Landfall was made on July 18, beyond 53°. On 
the 19th, 53°, 58’ was reached. On the 2oth, ‘“‘A point of 
land, which appeared to be an island, was named Santa 
Margarita for the saint of the day. The next day, Thurs- 
day 21st, the captain tried to round the point and to land, 
but the current forced the vessel southward.” 

Says Crespi, “ ‘we saw many camp fires, and the land 


214 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


was densely covered with trees, apparently pines. From a 
break in the land resembling the mouth of a river a canoe 
was seen coming toward the ship. While it was still dis- 
tant we heard the people in it singing, and from the 
melody we knew they were pagans, for it was the same 
which was sung at the dances . . . from San Diego to 
Monterey.’ ”’ 

“Fr, Crespi relates that while the ship was becalmed for 
twelve hours one league from the land facing the Point of 
Santa Margarita, as many as twenty-one canoes shot out 
from the shore towards the vessel. Two of them measured 
no less than twelve varas [thirty-three feet] along the keel; 
in one of these were twenty men... . One of the canoes 
held twelve women, who paddled and managed it as well as 
the men. All these Indians ‘drew close to the ship. . . 
They sang and played upon instruments of wood fashioned 
like drums or timbrels, and some made movements as 
though they would dance. .. . We soon found that they 
had come for the purpose of bartering their effects for 
ours. The sailors gave them. ribbons, old clothing, and 
beads; and they in turn offered the skins of the otter and 
other unknown animals very well tanned and dressed. They 
had coverlets of otter skins sewn together so well that the 
best tailor could not sew them better. 

‘“*They also gave us some little mats . . . in different 
colors; hats made of reeds, . . . some small wooden plat- 
ters, well made and ornamented, the figures of men, animals, 
and birds being executed in relief or cut into the wood; also 
some wooden spoons carved . . . and smooth within the 
bowl. 

“The captain [Pérez], who had spent a great deal of 
time in China and the Philippines, tells me that these Indians 
greatly resemble the Sangaleyes of the Philippine Islands. 
. . . Some of the sailors that had bought cloaks passed a 
bad night; for when they had put them on they found 
themselves obliged to take to scratching by reason of the 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 215 


bites they suffered from the little creatures which those 
pagans breed in their clothing’”’ (ibid.). 

Off the southwest point of Cape Santa Margarita, the 
latitude was found to be 55°, and this was the highest point 
reached by the expedition. 

By August 8, the Santiago had dropped down to 49°, 5’. 
No landing had as yet been made. But now, the wind 
dying down to a calm, it was planned to go ashore on the 
morrow, take possession, and raise the great cross. With 
the next day came a high wind. The longboat could not 
be lowered and the Santiago proceeded on her way south- 
ward. 

Fogs, almost like rain, with wind and cold, brought illness 
in their train. Most of the men developed scurvy. Good 
Padre Juan, whose mouth was so sore he could not say 
mass, came in for his share of misery with the rest. 

On the 22d, looming high and shadowy on the fog- 
obscured coast, Cape Mendocino was discerned. Green- 
how credits Pérez with being the first to determine the 
latitude of this cape. South of this, they were becalmed, 
and because of the possible bad effect of this delay upon 
the many prostrated by illness, great apprehension was 
felt. 

“On August 23d another novena was begun in honor of 
Our Lady of Talpa... . The same evening a light 
wind arose and revived the drooping spirits.”” This seems 
to have been the fourth novena during the voyage, the others 
having been to San Antonio, San Juan Nepomuceno, and 
Santa Clara. 

On Friday, August 26, the Farallones were left behind, 
and on the 27th, Saturday, at four o'clock, the Santiago 
cast anchor in the bay of Monterey. 

The diary kept by Fray Tomas de la Pena, signed on 
August 28, was forwarded to the viceroy overland, by way 
of the Peninsula, together with a letter from Fray Junipero 
Serra dated September 9. “Fr. Crespi prepared a clean 


216 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


copy of his diary and signed it at San Carlos Mission on 
October 5th, 1774.’’ This, with a brief letter from Serra, 
was sent by the Santiago, which reached San Blas on 
November 3, 1774, a little more than nine months from 
the date of sailing outward bound from that port. 

Results obtained by the Santiago expedition were all 
negative. The latitude mentioned by the viceroy as the 
turning point, 60°, had not been reached; no foreign estab- 
lishments had been discovered; because of constant fog, 
not much of the coast had been seen; no possession had 
been taken and no landing at all made; nor had the wonder- 
ful cross been raised. 


Recruits having arrived, it was now possible for the 
lieutenant governor to follow instructions received from 
the viceroy, dated August 17, 1773—the preceding year: 
to make further surveys and explorations in the vicinity of 
the bay of San Francisco, about which still not a very great 
deal was known. 


Taking an escort of sixteen soldiers, one of whom had 


served in the Fages expedition of 1772, which route they 
were to follow, a muleteer and pack train with provisions 
for forty days and accompanied by Padre Palou, his serv- 
ant, and a boy to assist at mass (both Indians), Captain 
Rivera started northward on November 23, 1774. On 
the 28th, camp was made on the banks of an arroyo (San 
Francisquito Creek), where the Portola expedition of 1769 
had remained from the 7th to the 11th of November; and 
at which point, Fages had turned to the right in order to 
reach the east side of the bay. This was thought a good 
location for a mission, and here a cross was raised. 

Some of the natives coming about, Padre Palou talked 
to them in the dialect of the Monterey Indians. They 
seemed to comprehend some of the things said to them, 
but he was not at all satisfied that he had made himself 


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SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 217 


clear about God and Heaven! However, he made the sign 
of the cross on all of them. 

Here they turned to the left and up the peninsula, fol- 
lowing the route of the Portola expedition, through a valley 
which they named Canada de San Andrés, it being the fiesta 
of that saint. ‘The Indians were friendly and numerous. 
Fog, rain, wind, and cold weather, for several days from 
December ist, delayed them, but on the 4th they pitched 
camp on a stream flowing into a lake, later named Laguna 
de la Merced. 

Accompanied by Padre Palou, Captain Rivera pushed on 
with four soldiers, crossed the hills and sand dunes until the 
seashore was reached; then proceeded along the beach until 
they were brought to a halt before a steep, high cliff, in 
front of which in the ocean were some pointed rocks swarm- 
ing with seals (Seal Rocks). 

A little détour and a stiff climb up the sand hills to their 
right, a turn to the left at the top, and they found them- 
selves immediately above the entrance from the ocean into 
the strait leading into “the great inland sea.’ ‘They were 
the first, save the Indians, to look from that point upon that 
miracle of beauty, and here—Point Lobos—they raised a 
cross that might be seen from afar. 


Returning to the camp near Lake Merced, Rivera decided 
that as the rainy season was upon them it would not be 
advisable to attempt explorations up the eastern side of 
the bay, and the next day, the 5th, found them on their 
way south. A few hours’ march brought them to the Por- 
tola trail; on the 11th, they crossed the Pajaro River; and 
on the 13th of December, they arrived at the Presidio of 
Monterey. With one soldier and his servants, Padre Palou 
went on to Mission San Carlos at Carmelo. 

All there regretted that nothing more could have been 
accomplished; but Palou was able to report six excellent 
sites for future missions. 


XVIII 


In November, 1774, Captain Don Juan Bautista de Anza 
arrived at the capital and duly presented his report to 
Viceroy Bucareli. 

Consultations were begun; preliminaries awaiting his 
advice were gone into; and details were formulated for 


presentation to the junta called by the viceroy for Decem- 


ber, apparently merely a matter of official routine—to keep 
the red tape free from tangles—with the result a foregone 
conclusion, permission, for reasons of state, having been 
given Bucareli to dispense with this and certain other for- 
malities should he deem it advisable. 

The junta’s resolution authorizing the expedition, among 
other things (using the Richman version) provided: “That 
the port of San Francisco should be occupied by Anza with 
forty soldiers and their families,—soldiers chosen from 
the Alcaldias (alcalde districts) of Culiacan, Sinaloa, and 
Fuerte, where ‘most of the inhabitants were submerged in 
the greatest poverty and misery’; that twenty-eight of the 
soldiers, under a lieutenant and sergeant, should be volun- 
teers, and ten should be veterans of the reconnoissance; 

. that Padre Garcés should attend the expedition as far 
as the banks of the Colorado, there to await its return, and 
that Fray Pedro Font should attend it throughout; that on 
his arrival at Monterey, Anza should turn over to Rivera y 
Moncada the volunteers, and, having with his own ten men 
aided in a survey of the Rio de San Francisco, should return 
with them to Tubac.”’ 

For  teniente—lieutenant—choice lay between José 
Joaquin Moraga, of Fronteras, and Cayetano Limon, of 
Buenavista. Both had been suggested by Anza. ‘They were 

[ 218 ] 


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SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 219 


of the same rank, alférez, and had been in the service many 
years. Moraga was appointed. He had a fine record,—as 
had Limon,—but was especially desirable because he was 
able to express himself well in writing. 

For sargento—sergeant—the names of José Ignacio 
Espinosa and Juan Pablo Grijalva, of Terenate, and 
Antonio Bravo, of Buenavista, were submitted. Espinosa 
could not write but received the appointment, other quali- 
fications outweighing that not unusual deficiency. But, as 
things worked out, Grijalva went. 

It is interesting to note that the Pious Fund was to help 
out—once more—in the matter of expedition expenses to 
the extent of ten thousand pesos. ‘The total cost, computed 
with the greatest care by Echeveste and Anza, came to 
something more than twenty-one thousand pesos. Neces- 
sary formalities having been completed, actual preparations 
were begun. 

Anza set up his standard at Horcasitas, and named Tubac 
as the official starting point. 


The Santiago, returning in November, had nothing but 
negative results to report; nothing very definite had been 
accomplished, yet much general information had been 
acquired and, in reality, a voyage of reconnoissance of the 
entire northwest coast had been made. 

Negative results took on a very positive value when 
a second expedition by sea was immediately ordered 
despatched by the viceroy. This, like the second expedition 
overland, was to be on a more ambitious scale and on what 
promised to be more efficient lines than anything before 
attempted. As arranged, it consisted of a fleet of four 
vessels under command of Lieutenant Bruno de Heceta 
of the royal navy—teniente de navio—on board the San- 
tiago, with Juan Pérez as his piloto—sailing master—and 
Cristobal Revilla as pilotin—master’s mate; Miguel de la 


220 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


Campa and Benito Sierra were the chaplains. ‘The little 
thirty-six foot schooner, the Sonora, was consort, com- 
manded by Lieutenant Juan Manuel de Ayala, teniente de 
fragata, of a rank lower than Heceta. These two were 
under orders somewhat similar to those issued to Perez 
the year before: to push on to the far northwest, and to 
endeavor to reach 65° latitude. Lieutenant Miguel Man- 
rique, of the same rank as Heceta in the royal navy, was 
in command of the San Carlos, which was to proceed to 
Monterey with supplies for the northern missions and then 
to make a thorough survey of the bay of San Francisco; 
Vicente de Santa Maria was the chaplain on board. 

The San Antonio, under Lieutenant Fernando Quiros, 
of the same rank in the royal navy as Heceta and Manrique, 
was to go no farther than San Diego with supplies for the 
southern missions; Ramon Usson was the chaplain. 

Three of these vessels: the Santiago, with the little 
Sonora in tow, and the San Carlos sailed on March 16, 
1775, from San Blas, followed by the San Antonio five 
days later. Shortly after the voyage began, Manrique 
became insane and was sent ashore; Lieutenant Juan Man- 
uel de Ayala was transferred from the Sonora to the San 
Carlos, while Lieutenant Juan Francisco de la Bodega y 
Cuadra, of the same rank as Ayala, took command of the 
Sonora, with Antonio Maurelle as piloto. A grade lower 
than Ayala and Bodega, Maurelle was of the same rank 
as Perez, alférez de fragata; and both were pilotos, as was 
Revilla. At the end of a week, the San Carlos had become 
separated from the other two, the Santiago and the Sonora; 
and, indeed, each of the four vessels spins its own yarn, 
the shortest being that of the San Antonio, which delivered 
her cargo at San Diego and was back at San Blas by the 
middle of June. : 

Because of unfavorable winds, little progress was made 
by the capitana and consort until early in April, when they 
were able to head for the northwest, being about opposite 


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SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 221 


Monterey on May 21, but making no stop there or any- 
where until after turning southward along the coast on 
June 7, at latitude 42°. A good anchorage was made on 
the gth, at latitude 41°, under a headland giving them 
protection from the prevailing north winds. Two days 
later, a landing was made. ‘The natives were very inquisi- 
tive about their visitors, but entirely friendly. Formal pos- 
session was taken. A cross was raised, mass said, the flag 
of Spain unfurled, and a salute fired. The port was named 
Trinidad, from the day, and still bears the name. A new 
topmast was made for the Santiago, and wood and water 
were taken on board. At this isolated place, a sailor 
deserted! 

On the 19th, the two vessels put to sea, and again headed 
for the north, keeping together until on July 30, when, the 
Sonora no longer in tow, they lost each other. 

Keeping close in shore and anchoring often, Heceta kept 
on to 49°. At that point, on August 11, he was obliged 
to put about, because so many men were disabled from 
scurvy, but continued to make observations on his way south, 
until 42°, 30’ was reached. After August 21, nothing much 
could be seen of the coast because of the dense fog, and 
although the Farallones were sighted, the entrance to the 
bay of San Francisco could not be located. On this voyage, 
Heceta had discovered the mouth of the Columbia River. 

On August 29, the Santiago cast anchor in the harbor of 
Monterey, landing some provisions and mission supplies 
that had voyaged far to reach their destination, a little 
more than a month after the departure of the San Carlos, 
which had arrived at Monterey on June 27, delivering sup- 
plies for the northern missions before proceeding to the bay 
of San Francisco for special service. 

Upon this voyage, the victims of the ill luck ever lurking 
about the San Carlos were her commanders: Manrique, who 
had gone mad; and Ayala, who, upon taking command, had 
been so seriously wounded by the explosion of some firearm 


222 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


left in his cabin by Manrique, that, although he remained 
with his ship and retained command, he could not actively 
participate to any great extent in explorations and surveys 
outlined in orders for the San Carlos. 

A boat was needed for the surveys to be made, and 
Captain Ayala remained at Monterey long enough to have 
one fashioned from the hollowed-out trunk of a redwood 
tree, called by Bancroft a “cayuco or ‘dugout.’”’ But on 
July 27 he set sail, a novena being commenced on that day 
for the success of the undertaking. On August 4, the San 
Carlos was opposite the entrance to the estero. 

The next morning, the Monterey-made boat, commanded 
by Canizares, was sent inside to find an anchorage, but 
currents ran too swiftly and tides were too strong, and 
the return trip could not be negotiated. After waiting until 
nearly nightfall, Captain Ayala headed the San Carlos for 
the entrance, passed on through the strait, and came safely 
to anchor at half past ten o’clock. The small boat was 
located the following day, and a new anchorage found 
under the lee of Angel Island, named at that time Jsla de 
Nuestra Senora de los Angeles. ‘The San Carlos kept her 
anchorage there during most of the time spent by the 
expedition in the bay of San Francisco. 

‘Goat Island,” officially Yerba Buena Island, was named 
at that time Isla de los Alcatraces, but, in some way, the 
plural (Island of the Pelicans) became the singular (Peli- 
can Island) and the name was shifted, for Alcatraz is 
farther out. 

The object of the expedition was to determine whether 
the entrance seen by Fages was navigable; whether the bay 
was suitable for a port; and to codperate with a party 
Rivera had been ordered to despatch overland, which was 
to assist with surveys and observations, selection of sites 
for a presidio and a mission, and to erect buildings to 
accommodate the soldiers and their families—settlers— 
who were soon to begin the journey from the Presidio of 


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SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 223 


Tubac, the second expedition to Alta California from 
Sonora under Juan Bautista de Anza. 

A careful survey of the bay began, Canizares being sent 
northward in the small boat, where he found rivers empty- 
ing their waters into the great bay, and many and friendly 
natives. Upon his return, Aguirre was despatched south- 
ward, meeting only three Indians on the whole trip, and 
as all three were weeping and wailing, the spot was named 
Ensenada de los Llorones. 

After forty-four days at anchor in the bay of San Fran- 
cisco, and his own special duties completed, weary of wait- 
ing for the land expedition which did not arrive, Ayala 
endeavored on September 7 to leave the harbor he had 
entered so easily but was not successful. On the 18th, the 
exit was made, and the next day the San Carlos was again 
in the harbor of Monterey. 


Meanwhile, Captain Bruno de Heceta, commanding the 
expedition, had returned from the north, a little more than 
a month after the departure of the San Carlos for the bay 
of San Francisco, and, as he had not been able to find 
his way into the harbor on his trip south, determined to 
lead a party overland and join Ayala. He was not able 
to carry out his intention at once for want of an escort, 
soldiers having been sent from Monterey to quell an upris- 
ing of the Indians at Mission San Antonio. But on Sep- 
tember 14, with nine soldiers, three sailors, and a carpenter, 
he set out. A small canoe bought by Heceta from the 
northern Indians was taken along, a mule being used as 
transport. On the 22d, the seashore was reached at the 
‘Bay of the Farallones,’’ where the waters from the Laguna 
de la Merced, named by this expedition, emptied. There, 
the cayuco made at Monterey for the San Carlos was dis- 
covered, filled with sand, the paddles not far away. 

The cross at Point Lobos was then visited, and letters 
buried at the foot by Fray Vicente de Santa Maria were 


224 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


found, telling of the safe and successful entrance into the 
harbor and the surveys made, and directing the land expedi- 
tion to light a fire at a certain point on the beach which 
would be seen by the San Carlos at her anchorage. This 
was done but no answering salute followed, for, four days 
before, the San Carlos had lifted her anchor and sailed 
away. 

Two days later, the return trip was begun, and Monterey 
was reached on October I. 


On the 7th, to the great joy of every one, the little con- 
sort, Sonora, which had been given up for lost, came into 
port. A fine record had been made by Captain Bodega y 
Cuadra, who, after having become separated from the 
capitana, Santiago, had pushed on to 58°, the while making 
a thorough survey from the point reached by Captain Juan 
Pérez in the Santiago the year before, and landing twice 
to take possession. 

Scurvy had not spared this crew and provisions were 
running low, so he was forced to turn. The coast was still 
followed; and surveys and observations were made as best 
they could. On October 3, they came to anchor in a bay 
named, in honor of the commander, Bodega Bay. A sud- 
den gale put an end to soundings and nearly proved their 
undoing, but the Sonora reached the open sea and made for 
Monterey. 


About the roth of October, the San Carlos sailed for 
San Blas. 

In his report to the viceroy, Captain Juan Manuel de 
Ayala wrote that the Bay of San Francisco was a good 


port, “ ‘the best he had seen . . . from Cape Horn north 
. . . not one port, but many, with a single entrance’ ”’ 
(Chapman). 


The Santiago and Sonora did not sail until November 1. 
On the second day out, Juan Perez, who had been ailing 


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: 
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SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 225 


for several days prior to departure, died. Commanding 
the San Antonio in the expedition of 1769, his “division 
by sea” had been the first by either sea or land to arrive 
at San Diego. From that time until his death he had been 
constantly in the Alta California service. When news of 
his death reached Monterey early in the following year, a 
solemn requiem mass was said for the repose of his soul. 

The two vessels arrived at San Blas on November 20. 


Spain had been lavish, for her, in the matter of these 
voyages, having expended some fifty thousand pesos, a large 
sum for that day; but the information gained was worth 
many times that amount to her. 

It now seemed that, for the time at least, foreign 
encroachment could be forgotten. But Bucareli evidently 
believed in “preparedness,” and went quietly on with plans 
for the defense of the northwest coast. 


Missions and yet more missions was the idea of the padre 
presidente, but it had been definitely decided that until there 
were more troops there would be no more missions other 
than those already arranged for. A clause, however, had 
been added to the decree, which was a beacon to Serra, 
pointing a way out of the impasse, reading somewhat in 
this way: that no more were to be added “‘ ‘unless it be 
judged possible to found one or two missions by decreasing 
the guards of the missions nearest the presidios, together 
with some [soldiers] whose absence would cause no serious 
drawback at the presidio’’”’ (Engelhardt). 

Letters went forth; answers came back; and, after some 
circumlocution, permission was granted by the viceroy, who 
was, in this matter of founding missions, very much in 
accord with the padre presidente. In a letter received by 
the padre presidente on August 10, 1775, the viceroy wrote: 
“Tt doubt not that Captain Rivera will agree to it, and 


226 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


that one or two missions will be founded’” (ibid.). Cap- 
tain Rivera evidently did agree, for on the 12th of the 
same month it was decided to found a mission between 
Mission San Gabriel Arcangel and San Diego de Alcala. 
The new mission was to be under Fray Fermin de Lasuén, 
then at Monterey. 

Padre Lasuén, with Lieutenant Ortega and a sergeant, 
journeyed south. Fray Gregorio Amurrio, who was to 
serve with Lasuén, joined them at Mission San Luis Obispo 
where he was acting as supernumerary, and remained at 
San Gabriel while Padre Lasuén continued on with Ortega 
to San Diego. 

Sending word to Amurrio to bring the church belongings 
and cattle for the mission and rejoin him, Padre Lasueén, 
Lieutenant Ortega, and twelve soldiers returned from San 
Diego as far as the place decided upon, La Quema, to found 
Mission San Juan Capistrano; and there, on October 30, 
mass was celebrated under a shelter of boughs. 

Everything was progressing well when, on November 7, 
a courier arrived, bringing news that caused Lieutenant 
Ortega to start at once for San Diego, taking with him the 
sergeant and part of the soldiers. 

The news received was of such character that the mission 
bells were buried forthwith. ‘The two padres and their 
guard followed the lieutenant to the Presidio of San Diego, 
taking the church paraphernalia along. 


Early in 1773, because of the possibility and the danger 
of harboring hostile Indians, Lieutenant Governor Don 
Pedro Fages had advised the removal of the rancheria of 
neophytes and also unconverted natives huddled about mis- 
sion and presidio at San Diego, to some more distant spot. 
Recommended by Fages, the idea did not appeal to Serra 
and was vigorously opposed by him, the danger seeming 
far-fetched and not worth considering. However, Padre — 
Jaime wrote to the padre presidente, favoring the removal 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA QV7T 


not only of the rancheria but of the mission itself away 
from the proximity of the presidio; and also urging the 
desirability of being where better crops might be raised, 
lack of water where they then were, at Cosoy, being a 
serious detriment. 

The matter was referred to the viceroy, who authorized 
Rivera to make the change if endieiut advisable by him and 
the padre presidente. 

In 1774, the mission was removed to a place about two 
leagues away, called by the Indians Nipaguay and com- 
monly referred to thereafter as “San Diego de Nipaguay.”’ 
The new buildings erected there were an improvement upon 
those at Cosoy. Construction was carried forward with 
enthusiasm. Roofed with tules—rushes—a church eighteen 
by fifty-seven feet was built, also a smithy of adobes, a 
dwelling for the friars, barracks for the guard, and a store- 
house; but the usual estacada—stockade—was not thought 
necessary. Later, a well was dug and land made ready 
for sowing. 

Spreading the faith at this mission had been difficult 
from the first, and at the end of 1774 San Diego stood at 
the foot of the list in the number of converts. But, during 
the year following the removal, affairs at the mission had 
gone peacefully along, and on October 3, 1775, sixty natives 
were baptized. 


On November 4, shortly after midnight, without having 
aroused a suspicion, a howling horde of almost a thousand 
savages, having previously set fire to all the buildings, sur- 
rounded the mission, sacking and looting,—ready to 
destroy, ready to torture, armed and ready to kill. 

The two padres, Luis Jaime and Vicente Fuster, and 
the Ortega boys, the small son and a nephew of the lieuten- 
ant, half awake, were the first to rush out, pell-mell, to 
find out the meaning of the pandemonium suddenly let 
loose. Amazed at what met their eyes, Padre Jaime never- 


228 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


theless addressed the Indians, using his usual words of 
greeting: “Amad a Dios, hijos! [Love God, sons!]” But 
there was no love in their hearts for God or man! 

The blacksmith, emerging from his quarters, sword in 
hand, was just in time to receive their answer to the priest’s 
words: a fusillade of arrows. He was instantly killed. 

Meanwhile, in the mélée, Fray Luis Jaime was seized 
by the Indians and dragged away. 

Finally, those remaining of the little group were driven 
to seek refuge in some sort of an adobe building, without 
a roof, in which was the store of gunpowder. ‘There, the 
long night through, they fought for their lives, pelted by 
burning firebrands, with arrows coming thick and fast from 
every vantage point. With body and soul, literally, Fray 
Vicente guarded the gunpowder lest the fiery missiles fall 
into it, covering it with his own body and the ample robe 
of his order, and praying all the while. 

At daybreak, the savages withdrew and did not come 
back. 

Emerging from their precarious ‘‘stronghold,” they were 
greeted by the neophytes, who claimed to have been held 
captive during the preceding night. All were fully armed, 
however, and in accounting for this some of them declared 
that they had, themselves, put the foe to flight. 

No trace of Padre Jaime could be found, nor could any 
information as to his possible fate be elicited from the 
neophytes. Of that they knew nothing. Finally, in an 
arroyo seco, some distance from the mission, his body was 
discovered, naked, disfigured beyond recognition, bruised 
from head to foot, and pierced by eighteen arrows! 

Urselino, one of the carpenters, sick in bed, had been 
fatally wounded, and indeed all had been wounded and all 
had fought valiantly. Just what happened to the Ortega 
boys during the night does not appear; but they were 
not killed nor, as we sometimes read, were they taken 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 229 


to the presidio by Padre Fuster. He was otherwise fully 
engaged. 

On that fateful night, there were twenty-two of Spanish 
blood at presidio and mission, eleven at each place; but 
those at the presidio—at Cosoy—were not attacked, and 
slept the night peacefully away, unaware of the tragedy 
being enacted at the mission. 

No sentinel had been posted at either place! 

A courier was sent to notify Lieutenant Ortega, com- 
manding the Presidio of San Diego, who was then at La 
Quema assisting in founding Mission San Juan Capistrano. 


On December 13, thirty-nine days after the attack on 
Mission San Diego, news of the tragedy was received by 
the comandante at Monterey. 

Rivera went at once to Carmelo, to inform the padre 
presidente. Serra’s manner of receiving the communica- 
tion, and part of his letter to Bucareli in regard to it, may 
serve as a key to his viewpoint in wishing to found missions 
with or without proper military protection; or, it may be 
that he was seized by an overpowering emotion—exalta- 
tion—bordering on religious rapture or ecstasy. At all 
events, he exclaimed: ‘‘ “Thanks be to God! that land is 
now watered; now the conversion of the Dieguenos will 
be effected’? (Engelhardt from Palou) ; while, on the 15th, 
he wrote both to Bucareli and to the Guardian of the 
College of San Fernando that they were not discouraged, 
“but that they rather envied their fortunate companion, 
Fr. Luis, the happy death which he had merited”’ (ibid.). 

Fearing that the leaders, if caught, might be harshly 
dealt with and that the establishment of Mission San Juan 
Capistrano might not go forward, he asked that mercy be 
shown the guilty; but he did descend to earth long enough 
to suggest that similar calamities might be averted by 
increasing the mission guards. 


230 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


On December 16, the lieutenant governor comandante, 
with thirteen soldiers, started for the south, stationing one 
additional soldier at Missions San Antonio and San Luis 
Obispo on the way. 


The entrance to the Estero de San Francisco had been 
seen by Rivera y Moncada at the end of 1774. ‘The next 
year, in August, Don Juan Manuel de Ayala, commanding 
the San Carlos, had taken his vessel through it and into the 
bay, had made a thorough survey, and reported the value 
of the harbor to the viceroy. Captain Bruno de Heceta 
had led a party overland from Monterey up the peninsula 
to the estero in September of the same year, had looked 
about him—and returned. 

At the waning of the year, 1775, nothing at all had been 
done by way of preparation for the coming of the soldiers 
and their families, and other colonists to be established 
there, and who were then en route with the second expedi- 
tion under Lieutenant Colonel Don Juan Bautista de Anza. 
No buildings had been erected for their accommodation, 
and neither presidio nor mission had been founded, nor 
had the sites for them even been selected. 


— = 


: 
; 
q 
| 
| 
3 
§ 
| 
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| 


XIX 


The Presidio of Tubac was the official point of departure 
for the second Anza expedition. With a recruiting station 
at San Felipe de Sinaloa, the assembling place was San 
Miguel de Horcasitas, where all were mustered for the 
preliminary march, on September 29, 1775, and everybody 
and everything inspected. Half past four o’clock in the 
afternoon had come around before the start was made and, 
after only one short league, a halt was called on the far 
side of the Rio de Horcasitas. 

Now thoroughly organized, the expedition moved at nine 
o'clock on the following morning. 


The canon of the Rio San Ignacio, through which the 
expedition was to pass, gave some anxiety, and many pre- 
cautions were taken against surprise by Apaches who 
infested the way from Horcasitas to Tubac. The gorge 
was ten miles in length, with precipitous walls rising in 
height to from five to eight hundred feet, and, in places, 
less than one hundred feet in width—an invitation to 
attack, and many massacres had been staged there by the 
Indians. 7 

On the morning of the 13th of October, the cation was 
entered, the start having been made at eight o’clock from 
Fl] Guambut, where camp had been pitched on the after- 
noon before. Proceeding very cautiously, Anza led the 
expedition safely through the dreaded pass in five hours. 
The expedition, according to Padre Pedro Font’s diary, 
“at one in the afternoon, halted at El Sibuta, having trav- 
elled . . . very slowly through the canyon of El Guam- 


[ 231 ] 


232 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


but, as it is a dangerous pass on account of the Apaches” 
(Teggart). 

The Presidio of Tubac was reached at two o’clock in the 
afternoon on October 15. 

On October 23, at eleven o’clock, the expedition marched 
from the Presidio of Tubac and was now officially on its 
way; and at three o’clock in the afternoon, having made 
about five leagues, halted at La Canoa, where, during the 
night, toll was paid unto Death, one unfortunate woman 
dying in childbirth—the only death recorded by the expedi- 
tion. The body was taken for burial to Mission San Xavier 
del Bac, which was reached on the 25th. 

On the 26th, the caravan moved on. | 


The order of march was about as follows: Four scouts 
preceded el teniente coronel—the lieutenant colonel—in 
command of the expedition, Don Juan Bautista de Anza 
of the Presidio of Tubac, with his personal escort; after 
the comandante came Padre Fray Pedro Font, who was 
to remain with the expedition throughout, and the two 
padres, Fray Hermenegildo Garcés and Fray ‘Tomas 
Eixarch, who were to go only as far as the Colorado 
River; next were men, women, and children, with an escort 
of soldiers, followed by the teniente—lieutenant—José 
Joaquin Moraga, who brought up the rear guard; back of 
all these came the pack train and arrieros, the loose horses 
and cattle and vaqueros. In the caravan were more 
than a thousand animals. Pack mules conveyed baggage 
of all kinds, provisions, ammunition, and presents for the 
Indians. 

Besides those who have already been named, the roster 
included: Mariano Vidal, the purveyor; Sergeant Juan 
Pablo Grijalva; eight veteran soldiers from the Sonora 
presidios,; twenty recruits; ten veterans from Tubac, Anza’s 
escort; twenty-nine women, wives of the soldiers; one hun- 
dred and thirty-six persons of both sexes, belonging to the 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 233 


families of the soldiers and the four families of colonists; 
twenty arrieros and three vaqueros—muleteers and herders; 
four servants for the friars, who were to be left with the 
padres, Garcés and Eixarch; and three Indian interpreters. 
Of the thirty soldiers who were to remain in California, 
fifteen were classed as Espanoles, seven as mulattoes, six 
as mestizos, and two as Indios. ‘They were accompanied 
by their families, and had been carefully selected from 
those ‘‘submerged in poverty.” From the day of enlist- 
ment, they were cared for at government expense: they 
“ate with the king.”’ Very little money was paid them— 
they were such gamblers—but all their needs were fore- 
stalled so far as possible. [he treasury doors were 
unlocked, so to speak, upon this occasion. About eight 
hundred pesos were allowed for the equipment of each 
family, a goodly sum at that day when the necessaries of 
life cost, according to our way of thinking, close upon 
nothing. Their enlistment was for ten years, and at the 
end of that time they were to become bona fide settlers. 


On the march, the column was a long one; when the 
expedition was encamped, it looked like a settlement. 
There were, in all, thirteen tents: a big circular one for 
the comandante, two for the padres, one for the teniente, 
and nine for the families. As for the soldiers, their cloaks 
and their blankets were thought sufficient to shelter them. 

In the early morning hours, when the time for breaking 
camp approached, a busy scene was enacted. The caballada 
and mulada were rounded up; soldiers and servants, carry- 
ing out orders and attending to various duties, hurried 
about; while packing and saddling were going on, Padre 
Font said mass; and, finally, all being in readiness, the 
commanding ofhcer gave the order to mount—Vayan 
subiendo/—whereupon all mounted, and, as the expedition 
got under way, Padre Font would lift his voice in a hymn 
of praise—the 4labado—and all would join in. 


234 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


At the end of the day’s march, a halt was called and all 
dismounted; the teniente would report to the comandante 
‘whether they were all up, or any had been left behind, 
and receive his orders. At night the people recited their 
beads, each family by itself, and finishing by singing the 
Alabado or Salve, or something of that sort, everyone for 
himself, and Font remarks that the variety had a very 
pleasing effect’? (Coues). 


Because of the many women and children—one hundred 
and sixty of them—a safer but longer route than that fol- 
lowed by the first expedition was chosen: down the Santa 
Cruz and Gila rivers instead of through Papagueria. 

After four days of long marches from San Xavier del 
Bac, Padre Garcés records at the end of the fifth day and 
the longest march: 

“Oct. 30. We approached the Rio Gila and halted at 
a laguna [Camani], having traveled 12 leagues. . . 

“Oct. 31. The senor comandante determined to rest 
our party; and in consequence of this I had an opportunity 
of going to see the Casa Grande that they call de Mocte- 


zuma. .. . For the present condition of this casa I refer 
to the description thereof that Padre Font has given. . .’”’ 
(ibid.). 


This is taken advantage of to shift from Garcés to Font 
without going over the same ground, and with a few words 
from Coues, himself, by way of preface. He says: “With 
Font’s own handwriting before me, I give it in as close a 
translation as I can make—as nearly word for word as 
English idiom will admit. At date of Tuesday, Oct. 31, 
Font says: 

“Determined the senor comandante to-day to rest the 
people . . . and with this we had an opportunity of going 
to examine the Casa grande . . . to the which we went 
after mass, and returned after midday, accompanied by 
some Indians, and by the Governor of Uturitic, who on 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 235 


the way told us a history, and tradition, that the Pimas 
Gilenos conserve from their ancestors concerning said Casa 
grande, which all reduces itself to fictions (patranas) 
mingled confusedly with some catholic truths, the which I 
will notice hereafter. .. . We examined with all care this 
edifice, and its vestiges, whose ichnographic plan is that 
which here I put [pen-and-ink ground plan of the Casa, ori- 
ented . . . |: and for its better understanding I give the 
description and explication following: The Casa grande, or 
palace of Moctezuma will have from foundation some five 
hundred years according to the histories and scanty notices 
that there are of it, and the Indians give; because, as it 
appears, the Mexicans made this foundation when in their 
transmigrations the devil took them through various lands 
until they arrived at the promised land of Mexico, and in 
their sojourns, which were long, they formed settlement, 
and edifices. The site on which is found this Casa is . 
apart from the river Gila about one league, and the ruins 
of the houses which formed the settlement extend more 
than a league to the east and the rest of the winds; and 
all this ground is strewn with pieces of jars, pots, plates, 
&c., some plain, and others painted of various colors, white, 
blue, red, &c., an indication that it was a large settlement, 
and of a distinct people from the Pimas Gilefios, since these 
know not to make such pottery. We made an exact inspec- 
tion of the edifice ...and we measured it with a 
lance for the nonce, which measurement I reduced after- 
ward to geometrical feet... .’” Then comes a long 
accurate description with measurements—none of which 
has place here. Font, the ‘“‘journalist,’’ now ceases to 
interest. 

On November 27, having halted about noon in a nar- 
row gap of the Gila, and while they were at mess, Salvador 
Palma, the Yuma chief, who had been notified of the 
approach of the expedition, presented himself, having 
journeyed forth to meet el senor comandante. 


236 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


After embracing him, Palma enquired solicitously after 
the health of the king and viceroy, saying how gratified he 
was to have seen them at Horcasitas, and how pleased he 
should have been had he been able to understand all they 
had said at that time! Who the grandees were he had 
mistaken for the more august personages does not appear. 
He said he had kept the peace pact except as to the Ser- 
ranos, who had attacked a Spanish mission in Alta Calli- 
fornia! ‘This gave some basis for apprehension. 

He was anxious to know how soon missionaries were to 
be sent among his people and missions established as he 
had repeatedly so earnestly requested. He begged, in case 
no missionaries had been sent by that time, that upon the 
return of the comandante he might go with him to Mexico 
to plead with the viceroy to grant his request, and this 
Anza promised. 

‘November 28.—[ Font records.] We set out from the 


pass and the banks of the Gila. . . and. . . in the after- 
noon, halted on the shore of the Rio Colorado after fording 
the Rio Gila for the third time, . . . About a league down 


stream from this place, the Rio Gila joins the Rio Colo- 
rado” (Teggart). 

The water. was too deep at the ford used by the first 
expedition to permit a crossing to be effected at that point; 
and too cold, moreover, for the Indians to convoy rafts 
by swimming beside them,—too slow a proceeding, even if 
otherwise possible, for so large a party. The Yuma Indians 
knew of no other ford, but the comandante personally 
sought and found another farther up stream, where the 
river divided into three shallow channels. A way had to be 
cut through a thicket, impassable for the horses, but once 
this was done the worst was over, although there was some 
little trouble negotiating the passage. 

At seven o'clock on the morning of November 30, the 
expedition broke camp and moved up to the new ford. 
The pack trains took over only half loads at a time. 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 237 


Women and children, mounted on the tallest horses, were 
safeguarded by men riding on the down-stream side as a 
rescue corps in case of mishap. ‘The water was not deep, 
only about four feet, but the river, in its three channels, 
was more than eight hundred and fifty feet in width. 

Fray Pedro Font, who was not well and too dizzy to 
manage the crossing alone, was supported by a servant on 
either side, while a third led his horse. Fray Francisco 
Tomas Hermenegildo Garcés was carried over bodily on 
the shoulders of three natives, two at his head, one at his 
feet, his face to the sky, stretched out stiff, rigid like a 
corpse! 

By one o'clock, the whole expedition, bag and baggage, 
had crossed; and, proceeding about a league northwest, 
halted and encamped beside the river. 


Fray Francisco Garcés was to be “‘the voice of one cry- 
ing in the wilderness,” to prepare the way for the coming 
of missionaries and the founding of missions, so earnestly 
prayed for by Palma, the chief of the Yuma Indians. Padre 
Garcés served faithfully both Church and Crown. His 
“wanderings” were really explorations, and his observations 
were very valuable as set down in his carefully kept diary, 
and were so considered at the time. Charmingly translated 
by Dr. Elliott Coues, with a running fire of footnotes, in 
his monograph, On the Trail of a Spanish Pioneer, the 
Garcés diary is full of interest and information. 

On December 5, the day following the departure of the 
caravan, Garcés set out, accompanied by the Indian, Sebas- 
tian Tarabal, and his two interpreters, on his way down the 
Colorado, weaving back and forth among the ranchertas 
of the Indians. He says: “I talked to them, and exhibited 
the linen print of Maria Santisima and the lost soul. They 
told me that she was a nice lady, that senora; that the lost 
soul was very bad... . I laid before them the proposition, 


238 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


whether they wished that Espanoles and padres should come 
to live in their land, and they answered ‘Yes’ . . . for then 
they would have meat and clothing. I gave them some 
tobacco and glass beads, with which they were much 
pleased.” 

As to “the linen print,” he says, elsewhere: ‘‘Foresee- 
ing that I could not explain myself better to the Indians 
than with images of the kind most familiar to their 
sight, I determined to carry a linen print of Maria 
Santisima with Nino Dios in her arms, having on the 
other side the picture of a lost soul. In all the entradas 
I have made among the gentiles I have observed that 
the divine crucifix which I wore on my breast caused their 
devotion; Soi 

Back and forth, visiting the various rancherias, he arrived 
at Santa Olalla; and, under date of December 7, set down: 
“T remained at the Laguna de Santa Olalla in company 
with the senor comandante, Padre Font, and the whole 
expedition.” | 


So striking is the contrast in the characters of Font and 
Garcés that it is continually forcing itself upon one in the 
diaries of the two padres: Font, with a “chip on his 
shoulder,” petty, grouchy, caustic—even unchristian—in 
his criticisms, egotistical, full of grievances, his pages bristle 
with accounts of the abominably unfair treatment accorded 
him; with Garcés, vitally interested in his explorations, his 
observations, his work among the Indians—trying to solve 
the problem of their possible regeneration, exalted over 
the psychological reaction to “the linen print” of the 
Madonna, the personal equation does not enter. 

Garcés had no thoughts to waste upon himself. An 
example is the following: Garcés writes, on December 1, 
1775, ‘“‘We went—the senor comandante, Padre Tomas 
(Eisarc), and I—with some muleteers (arrieros) to the 
house of Captain Palma, which was distant from the place 


ee ee — =" 


ee ee ee se ee nee ee 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 239 


where we had halted about one league westward, for the 
purpose of building the hut (xacal) which had to serve as 
our habitation until the return of the expedition. ‘This 
evening Captain Palma put on the clothes which the senor 
viceroy had presented to him in recognition of the good 
services he has rendered to the Espanoles.”’ 

In the Font diary, the same episode is treated as follows: 
‘“ “Captain Palma appeared in the uniform which had been 
given to him. .. . The sehor comandante brought the 
clothes on behalf of the Viceroy, and gave them to Palma 
this night, and made him put them on in his (Anza’s) tent, 
without our concurrence, or letting us know anything about 
it; for he is so fond of keeping to himself all his actions, 
and setting himself up in the opinion of others, that he will 
let nobody else have a hand in his affairs, nor admit to his 
presence anyone who might in any way attract the attention 
of the people he wants to keep for himself?” (Coues, 
note). 

Don Juan Bautista, the bearer of this gift from the vice- 
roy to the Indian chief, was in one sense, at least, an envoy 
extraordinary. Every one knows how the temperature 
soars at Yuma! Bucareli’s recognition of Palma’s loyalty 
consisted of a sleeveless coat of blue cloth lined with gold, 
two shirts, a jacket and trousers of chamois skin, and a 
bejeweled velvet cap ornamented with the coat of arms of 
the dragoons. Truly a remarkable gift to one accustomed 
to going about with an airy nothing on in the way of 
clothing. 

And the padre grumbled on: ‘“ ‘So, though it would 
have been more regular for the presentation of glass beads 
and tobacco which he brought for the gentiles in the name 
of his majesty to have been made to the Indians at the 
hands of we three padres who accompanied the expedition, 
in order to exalt their minds, since in the end the religious 
have to be their ministers, and the Indians are inclined to 
recognize those who make them presents; nevertheless, the 


240 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


senor comandante always made such distributions with his 
own hand, and would never let us do it, and not once on 
the whole journey did he ask me if I wanted a string of 
beads to give to some Indian, excepting . . . where he 
gave me a few strings for which I begged’” (ibid.). 

We hear from Font that when Palma and Pablo were 
in his (Font’s) tent, and while he was talking to them, 
‘«’ . . Anza sent for Palma, for no other purpose than to 
get him away from the padre’s tent, for it did not suit 
him to have anyone talk to the Indians, especially to cap- 
tains, or give them any instructions; and in order to enter- 
tain the Indians he got up a dance for them by the light 
of the fire in front of his tent, so that Font had no chance 
to say anything more” (ibid.). 

In reference to the xacal, Garces says, ‘““The hut was 
finished... . The senor comandante issued to Padre 
Fray Tomas and to me what was allowed us for our sub- 
sistence’”’ (ibid.). Anza had personally seen to the building 
of the hut, had set aside provisions for the padres, and given 
them beads and trinkets for the Indians; but Font, taking 
it upon himself to do a little investigating, prodding Anza 
and probing for details, went just a little too far and got 
what he richly deserved—a good snubbing. Says Coues, 
“Then Anza got very hot, and wanted to know whose busi- 
ness that was, saying that he did not have to give Font 
reasons for anything he did; that he was already doing more 
than he was obliged to do in building the hut, as he had no 
orders to that eliectya acs 

Font found that “these senores who command such expe- 
ditions have nobody over them to contend with, and are so 
absolute that there is need of real patience in putting up 
with them . . .”’; while Garcés speaks of Anza’s unlimited 
patience in dealing with the Indians, ‘‘worthy to be imitated 
by all who devote themselves to such enterprises.” 

Of Font, generally, Coues says: ‘‘Let us sympathize 
with poor Font, snubbed and abused, truculent and jealous, 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 241 


while we admire the discipline enforced in all things, great 
and small, by the model commanding officer Anza.” 

At Santa Olalla, “the linen print” was displayed with the 
usual results by Garcés, who writes that he “. . . showed 
them the image of Maria Santisima and the figure of the 
lost soul. .. . All showed by their great delight how 
much they were pleased with Maria Santisima, exclaiming 
that everything was all right, but the sight of the lost soul 
so horrified them that they would not look at it and wanted 
the picture reversed; and (also exclaiming) that it suited 
them that the padres and Espanoles should come to their 
lands.” 

Coues, the translator of the above, says, ‘Lest I be 
suspected of embroidering the passage a bit, I give the 
original: . . . ‘all with great joy manifested how much 
Holy Mary suited them, shouting that all was very good; 
but the sight of the damned caused them such horror that 
they wished not to see it.’ It would be hardly credible 
that a grown-up man could write such nonsense—but there 
it is! ‘The gentle, lovable Garcés, simple as a child in 
religion, his heart inflamed with zeal for souls, clutched 
at every straw which seemed to show which way the wind 
blew for his missionary enterprise. Font himself seems 
to have been immensely edified by the performance, though 
he was a stark theologian who detested and despised Indians, 
seeking their salvation only in an official and perfunctory 
manner. His Diary has the following on the same occa- 
sion: ‘In the evening Padre Garcés assembled the Indians, 
distributed a little tobacco and some beads, and then showed 
them a grand picture of the SSma Virgin with the infant 
Jesus in her arms, and they manifested a great joy and 
hurrah at seeing the image, and said, through the inter- 
preters, that it was good, . . . He [Garcés] whipped 
about the cloth, on the reverse of which was painted a 
lost soul, and they raised a loud cry, saying that that did 
not suit them, etc. He did the same with the Gilefos, 


QAQ SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


Opas, and Yumas, and all responded alike. . . . It seems 
to me that a great Christianity could be had in these 
nations; yet, such is the fickleness of Indians that a pretty 
big presidio is always necessary... .”’ 

Garcés now set out on one of his “wanderings,” the 
entry in his diary for that day being, “Having taken leave 
of the senor comandante, of Padre Font, and of all the 
expedition, I departed .).°.7 77 

Of Garcés, Padre Font writes: ‘‘ ‘Padre Garcés is so 
fit to get along with Indians, and go about among them, 
that he seems just like an Indian himself. He shows in 
everything the coolness of the Indian; he squats cross- 
legged in a circle with them, or at night around the fire, 
for two or three hours or even longer, all absorbed, for- 
getting aught else, discoursing to them with great serenity 
and deliberation; and though the food of the Indians is as 
nasty and disgusting as their dirty selves, the padre eats 
it with great gusto, and says that it is appetising, and very 
nice. In fine, God has created him, I am sure, totally on 
purpose to hunt up these unhappy, ignorant and boorish 
people’”’ (Coues, note). 

Of the two, Coues writes, ‘““There is all the difference 
between the Good Samaritan and the Pharisee. Font could 
have preached and quoted De Imitatione Christi; Garcés 
was imitating Christ.” 


For the desert crossing, the expedition was divided into 
three sections, starting from the Laguna de Santa Olalla 
on consecutive days, the first on December g, in order 
that the water holes might have time to refill. 

On the 13th, the comandante, with the first division, 
halted at the Rancheria de San Sebastian and encamped, 
to await the arrival of the other two. On the 15th, 
Sergeant Grijalva brought his division safely into camp, 
nothing more serious than the usual hardships of such a 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 243 


journey having been experienced by either. The third 
division, under Lieutenant Moraga, did not come up with 
the other two on the next day, as expected, and, in fact, 
did not make the camp until the afternoon of the 17th, 
after battling its way through wind, snow, and rain; the 
desert crossing for this division, caught in a wild storm, 
had been a terrible experience; Moraga had suffered keenly, 
and later, from the exposure at that time, became totally 
deaf. 

Clippings from Padre Font’s diary furnish the following: 

‘December 18.—We set out from San Sebastian at one 
in the afternoon, and, . . . halted in a bottom with some 
grass and without water, . . .’”’ at the base of a wall of 
mountains facing the desert, towering snow-clad above 
them. 


“December 19.—We set out from the bottom . . . in 
the morning, and . . . in the afternoon, arrived at San 
Gregorio, a place with little grass and less water. . . 

‘December 20.— . . . Last night the cattle stampede 
from lack of water, and eu for San Sebastian. 

“December 23.— . . . alittle before three, halted. . . 


in a canyon that runs on up, and through it passes the road 
that crosses the Sierra Madre de California.” 

The next day, the 24th, after traveling about four 
leagues, the expedition halted ‘‘in the same canyon in a dry 
gully,” according to the padre, and camp was made. 

The weather was bitterly cold and these immigrants, 
coming from mild climates, suffered intensely. About mid- 
night, one poor woman-thing gave birth to a child. 
Whether the small being came into the world as Christmas 
Eve was disappearing or after the new day had been 
ushered in is of no importance. In the various ways in 
which the advent has been chronicled, however, there is 
room between the lines for a thought or two to appear,— 
signposts for a hasty little détour into superficial philosophy. 
Good, patient Don Juan Bautista notes that ‘‘she is the 


244 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA: 


third who has done this thing between Tubac and this 
place.” Dr. Chapman writes: “One of the women chose 
this period to be delivered of a child... .” (A remark- 
able choice, had she any in the matter!) The padre 
records, ‘‘December 25.—-For the reason that on this holy 
night of the Nativity, a little before midnight, the wife 
of a soldier happily gave birth to a son, and because the 
day was very raw and foggy, it was decided to remain 
today” (Teggart). 

Padre Font celebrated three masses on that Christmas 
Day, preached, and baptized the new-born child. 

At a quarter after nine o'clock on the following morning, 
the expedition continued the ascent, the sick woman, accord- 
ing to Eldredge, having ‘“‘the courage for the march.” Be 
that as it may, the unfortunate creature moved on with 
the rest of the cavalcade. After a stiff, hard climb of five 
hours, the Royal Pass of San Carlos was reached. There 
a halt was made because of rain. On that day, not only 
was there rain and cold to endure but a thunderstorm; and, 
at five o'clock, an earthquake shock occurred, lasting, 
according to different authorities, from a very short while 
to four minutes—a very long time when minutes are 
measured by an earthquake. 

On the 27th, Anza sent two soldiers on ahead to an- 
nounce his approach to the lieutenant governor, Don Fer- 
nando de Rivera y Moncada, at Monterey, and to the 
various missions. He specially requested Captain Rivera 
to be in readiness to accompany him to the Rio de San 
Francisco, to carry out the orders of His Excellency the 
Viceroy. 

On the 28th, the expedition remained in camp in the 
Canada de San Patricio, because, Font says, ‘“This morn- 
ing the woman recently delivered was found to be ill.” 
What with rain, cold, a thunderstorm, an earthquake, and 
the long marches, added to the throes imposed by nature, 
she was on the verge of convulsions but responded to treat- — 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 245 


ment, and they were on their way again on the following 
morning. 

The Santa Ana River was reached on the last day of the 
year, 1775. Again, the river being in flood, el senor com- 
andante was obliged to have a bridge constructed, which 
was not completed until twelve o’clock of the following 
day, New Year’s Day, 1776. Women and children were 
taken over first, followed by all the rest and the baggage. 
The loose animals were made to swim, and one horse and 
an OX were swept away and drowned. It was three o’clock 
when at last all had crossed. Camp was made for the 
night on the west bank of the river. 

Anza’s avant courier now returned, bringing word from 
the corporal of the mission guard at San Gabriel of the 
attack on the mission at San Diego, on the night of Novem- 
ber 4; that the Indians were gathering about San Gabriel 
and their attitude was very threatening. He had sent word 
to el senor comandante at Monterey, and was expecting 
him to arrive at any moment. 

On the next day, Lieutenant Colonel Anza despatched 
two soldiers to the mission, announcing his early arrival. 

Advancing as rapidly as weather permitted, through a 
heavy downpour of rain and a little snow, camp was made 
on the night of the 2d on San Antonio Creek; on the 3d, 
on the San Gabriel River; and at eleven o’clock on the 
morning of January 4, 1776, the expedition came to a halt 
at Mission San Gabriel Arcangel, seventy-three days from 
the Presidio of Tubac. 

Lieutenant Governor Captain Don Fernando de Rivera 
y Moncada had arrived on the previous day. 


XX 


The crisis at San Diego, as of the most immediate 
importance, took precedence of all else in the conferences 
following the meeting of the comandantes at San Gabriel. 
Circumstances, trifling in themselves, led to the conclusion 
that this was no purely local demonstration; but that a 
widespread restlessness existed, extending even to far dis- 
tant rancherias, indicative of a desire on the part of the 
Indians to rid the land of the Spaniards. 

News of the San Diego affair had gone as far afield as 
the territory of the Yumas, Salvador Palma having told 
Lieutenant Colonel Anza of an attack upon an Alta Cali- 
fornia mission. As the expedition had advanced toward 
the scene of the tragedy, the increasing unfriendliness of 
certain Indians, never very friendly, was apparent: “straws 
in the wind!” 

With no adequate force to cope with the situation, Cap- 
tain Rivera asked aid of Anza, who, disregarding even 
the orders of the viceroy in this emergency, not only agreed 
to assist him but to serve under him. 

The entire permanent military force in Alta California 
at that time, guarding two presidios and five widely sep- 
arated missions, consisted of the comandante, one lieuten- 
ant, two ensigns or sublieutenants, two sergeants, eight 
corporals, and fifty-four soldiers, with one armorer and a 
drummer. 7 


On January 7, Rivera with twelve men and Anza with 
seventeen, all lightly equipped, accompanied by Fray Pedro 
Font, set out for San Diego. 


[ 246 ] 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA Q47 


Such a little handful, at best, to go forth to meet such 
hordes! . 

Moraga, who had just received his commission as lieu- 
tenant, was left in command at San Gabriel. 

On January 11, this punitive expedition arrived at the 
Presidio of San Diego. Investigations in the matter of 
the uprising began on the 13th. On the 16th, Rivera began 
sending out parties of soldiers to the various rancherias 
where the instigators, renegades from the mission, ring- 
leaders in the attack, were supposed to be in hiding. Upon 
word being passed from one to another of the approach of 
the troops, they would betake themselves to the mountains; 
but on the 26th, nine, with two lesser lights, were rounded 
up and brought in. 

On February 1, reports to the viceroy were despatched 
via Baja California. 


Anza and Rivera, antipodal by nature, did not codperate 
very well, and nothing effective was being done toward 
solving the problems of the Indian situation. No concerted 
action was taken, nor was any possible, for, after a time, 
Rivera, although he was using Anza’s soldiers, ceased to 
consult with him, thus forcing Anza to play a waiting game 
and postponing the carrying out by him of the viceroy’s 
orders. ‘This view was evidently held by Fray Pedro Font 
at the time; he records that: ‘“‘Every day we talked a 
great deal about Monterey, and more yet of the San Fran- 
cisco Port; the Senor Rivera ever saying that we could omit 
this trip, as we would not attain the object of it. . 
‘What is your object in going there?’ he would say. ‘To 
get tired out? I have told you that I have examined 
everything well, and have informed the Viceroy that there 
is nothing there suitable for that which he has planned.’ 

. ‘Friend,’ replied Senor Anza, ending the discussion, 
‘Lam going there . . .’”’ (Richman, from Font’s Diario, 
complete). 


248 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


It would seem as though, opposed to the plan for mission, 
presidio, and colony at San Francisco, and having done 
nothing himself toward carrying out orders in regard to 
them, Rivera did not wish Anza to reap the glory, if any 
should develop. 

Tired of drifting from one mafana to another, looking 
on at Rivera’s incapacity and inability to meet the situa- 
tion, on the 9th of February, Don Juan Bautista turned his 
back upon San Diego, leaving Rivera ten of his men under 
Sergeant Grijalva, and marched away northward to execute 
his commission. 

Arriving at San Gabriel on the 12th, he found that Lieu- 
tenant Moraga had gone in pursuit of some soldiers from 
Monterey, who, with four arrieros and servants of the 
expedition, had deserted, taking thirty animals and some 
other things along. Leaving word for Moraga to follow 
him with the rest of the expedition, Anza resumed his 
march on the 2Ist, taking with him seventeen men with 
their families and pack trains. On March 7, he was over- 
taken at Mission San Antonio by Moraga, who had appre- 
hended the deserters and left them tied up at San Gabriel. 
On the roth, at four-thirty in the afternoon, the expedi- 
tion “arrived at the Real Presidio del Puerto de Monterey 
[ Royal Presidio of the Port of Monterey]” (Teggart). 

Fray Junipero Serra, with four other friars, came the 
next morning from Mission San Carlos, to bid the lieutenant 
colonel and the expedition welcome. Says Font: “It was 
decided that we should go to the mission [of San Carlos] 
del Carmelo, as much to accede to the solicitations of the 
father-presidente, as, and that principally—because there 
was no place in the presidio for us to lodge; the lieutenant 
of the expedition, with the people who were being brought, 
remained at the presidio. The Commander, I, and some 
few others set out from the presidio of Monterey at four 
in the afternoon, and, at five, arrived at the mission of 
San Carlos del Carmelo. .. . Here the fathers—there 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 249 


were seven of them—received us, singing the Te Deum, 
with peals of bells, and great rejoicing” (ibid.). 


On March 13, Lieutenant Colonel Anza became very ill, 
suffered acutely, and was obliged to remain in bed. During 
this time, orders arrived at the presidio from Captain 
Rivera that the prospective colonists were to erect houses 
for themselves at Monterey, where they were to remain 
until such time as the presidio, mission, etc., could be estab- 
lished at San Francisco. This unexpected development 
filled the colonists with consternation, while the four mis- 
sionaries, who had been waiting so long for the two mis- 
sions to which they had been assigned to be founded in 
the vicinity of San Francisco,—already victims of that 
“hope deferred which maketh the heart sick,’’—were cast 
into the depth of disappointment. 

Rivera’s orders and the effect of them were reported by 
Lieutenant Moraga to Lieutenant Colonel Anza, at Car- 
melo, who, thereupon, despatched a letter to Rivera, stat- 
ing that the soldiers and their families were becoming 
greatly discouraged at the already long delay and were 
anxious to reach their destination. He urged Rivera to 
join them in carrying out the orders of the viceroy, but 
said that, in any event, he, himself, should proceed to 
make surveys and new examinations of the port. 

His personal orders had been to deliver the expedition 
to Rivera, the comandante of Alta California, at Monterey, 
and then to proceed to make a survey of the Rio de San 
Francisco. 


After the departure of Lieutenant Colonel Anza from 
San Diego, Captain Rivera y Moncada—or Rivera and 
the friars between them—created new complications. 

One of the neophytes, an Indian called “Carlos,” had 
been implicated in the attack on the mission, of Novem- 
ber 4, of the year before, 1775, to the full extent of being 


250 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


one of the murderers. He had returned to the mission, 
seemingly repentant, and had sought sanctuary in the build- 
ing where services were conducted in lieu of the church 
burned by the savages. 

Engelhardt, whose fine, conscientious work is constantly 
quoted in these pages in matters of Alta California church 
history, finds cause for complaint in the way “this case 
has been misrepresented.”’ Drawing upon both Palou and 
Font, his version is based upon letters written by Lasuén, 
Amurrio, and Vicente Fuster, at San Diego at the time, 
which were taken north by Rivera shortly after the occur- 
rence and delivered to Serra at Monterey. 

This—a firm, well-beaten historical path—will be fol- 
lowed: ‘‘When Fr. Vicente discovered him [Carlos] . . . 
he went in person to the captain, told what had happened, 
and asked him to see what could be done in a quiet way. 


The captain replied that . . . he would consider it.” 
Rivera then sent an “official notice . . . requesting him 
[Fuster] to deliver up the guilty Indian . . . who for his 


crime [murder] could not claim the right of sanctuary, the 
more so as the room where holy Mass was celebrated was 
not a church, but a warehouse, and that therefore he should 
be given up within so many hours, and if this was not done 
he would be taken out by force and imprisoned in the 
guardhouse.”’ 

In a note, he (Engelhardt) says: ‘‘Rivera must have 
known the law on the subject which prescribed that he 
must give formal assurance that the culprit would be treated 
according to law, in a word, that he should have a fair trial. 
. . . If he was ignorant, Fr. Vicente’s note soon enlightened 
him. ‘The friars . . . were more than a match for their 
aggressors and opponents when it came to lay down either 
civil or ecclesiastical laws.” 

Padre Fuster drew up a reply to Rivera’s demand, stat- 
ing that the ‘Indian could not be delivered up; that if His 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 251 


Honor dared to extract him forcibly His Honor would 
stand excommunicated, and that this reply served as formal 
warning.” By way of answer, taking with him a squad 
of soldiers, ‘‘with drawn sword in one hand and a lighted 
candle in the other he [ Rivera] entered the chapel . 
dragged him out . . . to be put into the stocks. 

Fr. Vicente, as the missionary in charge, protested against 
the violation of the church, and in a loud voice declared 
that the captain and all the others who had concurred in 
dragging the Indian from the church were excommunicated, 
and that they must regard themselves as such’”’ (ibid.). 

Just here, in a note, in Missions and Missionaries of 
California, Engelhardt, himself a Franciscan friar, makes 
a special point. He says: ‘Fr. Fuster, therefore, did 
not excommunicate Rivera, but merely declared that by his 
sacrilegious act the captain had incurred excommunication, 
that is to say, had put himself outside the Church.” 

Thus explained, it is easily understood. But it is quite 
technical, dificult of comprehension for the ordinary lay- 
man, and too fine a point, also, for the historian who is 
lacking in church lore to deal with unaided. It is easy, 
therefore, to see how misstatements may have been made, 
unintentionally, as to what did actually happen to Rivera 
upon that unfortunate ocasion. 

“Next day Fr. Vicente twice sent a formal notice to 
Rivera, requesting him to return the culprit to the sanctuary 
under pain of having the excommunication published; but 
the captain would not even read them” (ibid.). 

Two days later, just before mass was sung, Fray Lasuén 
addressed those who had assembled (in part) thus: 
‘““Senores . . . all who have concurred in taking . 
the Indian whom they hold imprisoned in the guardhouse 
are excommunicated and as such they cannot assist at holy 
Mass. If any of them are in the church they will leave; 
if they do not leave I cannot celebrate holy Mass.’ There- 


252 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


upon those who had taken part in the proceedings departed, 
and then High Mass was sung. ‘This was the report to 
which the three Fathers affixed their names” (ibid.). 

A few days later, when Captain Rivera set out for Mon- 
terey, he was the bearer of this report, denunciatory to him- 
self, addressed to the padre presidente. 

At San Gabriel, the unhappy man, who must have been 
‘possessed of a devil,’ ran into more trouble. 


After a long journey of exploration,—his “wanderings” 
since bidding the Anza expedition good-by, at Santa Olalla, 
having covered many leagues,—Fray Francisco Garcés had 
arrived, on March 24, at Mission San Gabriel, in need of 
provisions, and, in order to continue on his way northward, 
and out of the province by a different route, he needed an 
escort. Asking, he was refused assistance by the corporal 
of the mission guard, as, for one reason, there was a food 
shortage at the time. Thereupon, the padre wrote to the 
lieutenant governor, at San Diego, making known his 
wants; but his answer was as flat a refusal as had been 
that of the corporal at San Gabriel. 

A few days after his reply had been received, Don Fer- 
nando arrived at the mission in person. Garcés then laid 
the matter before him, but Rivera refused to aid him in 
any way. Garces urged that an order from him for provi- 
sions would be honored by the friars; that, as there were 
many animals belonging to the expedition, his needs of that 
kind could, also, be met; that, as the journey could not be 
made without an escort and as the sezor comandante was 
on his way to Monterey, he be allowed to accompany him to 
a point beyond the upper end of the Santa Barbara Channel. 
For the third time, Rivera refused him assistance, saying 
that he had received no orders in the matter from His 
Excellency, the viceroy. Finally, he did let him have a 
horse belonging to the Anza expedition. 

Fray Garcés was supplied by the missionaries, so far as 


oe a) ee 


p 
LS 
; 
q 
a 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 253 


might be, and, on April 9, departed over a pass in the 
sierra, by way of the San Fernando Valley. 

Of course, Garcés was making these explorations, which 
were of great value, under instructions from Bucareli, 
but, nevertheless, this controversy had ensued upon the 
arrival of that maker of trouble, Rivera y Moncada, whose 
heartless discourtesy to the padre was such that, to Fray 
Zephyrin Engelhardt, ‘It lends color to the opinion of his 
associates that the California commander, upon whom 
then rested the ban of excommunication, might not be in 
his right mind.” 

Rivera had been directly unkind; had not assisted him in 
such ways as he could, as was palpably his duty, and, 
indirectly, had hindered him; but, in writing of the episode, 
later, at Mission Tubutama, where he revised his diary, 
Garcés reviews the whole matter quietly, dispassionately, 
impersonally, and with dignity. 


When Don Juan Bautista de Anza took to his bed 
on March 13, he was acutely ill, but on the 17th was some- 
what better. On the 20th, he had so far recovered that 
he decided to resume the march northward, and on the 
22d, at three o'clock, departed from Mission San Carlos, 
arriving at the Presidio of Monterey within the hour, from 
which place the start was made the next morning. 

The party consisted of Lieutenant Colonel Anza, Padre 
Font, Lieutenant Moraga, eight soldiers from Sonora and 
two from the presidio who had made the journey with 
Captain Don Pedro Fages in 1772;—in all, with servants 
and arrieros, twenty persons. 

The route of the expedition of 1774, under Captain 
Rivera, was followed until, after passing the Arroyo de 
San Francisco, Anza, not swerving so far to the left, pro- 
ceeded by a more direct way up the peninsula to Mountain 
Lake. 

On March 26, the Arroyo de San Mateo was crossed, 


254 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


and, about one short league beyond, camp was pitched “at 
a small, almost dry, watercourse,” according to Font, who 
records: ‘‘March 27.—We set out from the small water 
course at seven in the morning and, a little after eleven, 
halted beside a pond or spring of fine water near the mouth 
of the port of San Francisco . . . a wonder of nature, and 
may be called the port of ports, on account of its great 
capacity and various bights included in its litoral or shore 
and in its islands. .. . The inner end of the entrance is 
formed by two very steep and high cliffs, on this side a 
white cliff; and on the other side a red one... . Some 
six or eight leagues out to sea, a group of rather large rocky 
islets (farallones) can be seen . 5 [and] farther out, four 
other farallones.. . 

A very full day followed this one,—eventful, too, for 
decisions made on that day by Don Juan Bautista de Anza 
laid permanent foundations. Font’s diary for that date is 
interesting. He says: 

‘March 28.—The commander decided to erect the holy 
cross on the extremity of the white cliff at the inner point 
of the entrance to the port, and we went there at eight 
o'clock in the morning. We ascended a small low hill, and 
then entered a table-land [mesa], entirely clear, of con- 
siderable extent, and flat, with a slight slope toward the 
port; . . . narrowing until it ends in the white cliff [ el cantil 
blanco]. This table-land commands a most wonderful 
view, as from it a great part of the port is visible, with its 
islands, the entrance, and the ocean, as far as the eye can 
reach—even farther than the farallones. The commander 
marked this table-land as the site of the new settlement, 
and the fort which is to be established at this port, for, 
from its being on a height it is so commanding that the 
entrance of the mouth of the port can be defended by 
musket-fire, and at the distance of a musket-shot there is 
water for the use of the people, that is, the spring or pond 
where we halted. 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 255 


“From there the commander decided to go and inspect 
the low hills leading toward the inner part of the port. 

I accompanied the commander for a while, and, at ten in 
the morning, . . . returned to the camp to make an 
observation.” 

Following the record closely but condensing the padre’s 
story, somewhat: “About five in the afternoon the com- 
mander and the lieutenant returned . . . very much pleased 
. . . having found brush and firewood; water in abun- 
dance; tillable ground and pasture—all close at hand; 
materials, in the woods, for building huts, barracks, and 
stockades, lacking only timber for large edifices, obtain- 
able, however, at no very great distance away, on the 
plain—some three leagues north of the Arroyo de San 
Francisco—‘‘called the Llano de los Robles because it is 
very densely grown with all sizes of oaks, from which very 
good lumber may be taken out. 

“March 29.—At a quarter past seven in the morning we 
set out from the lake or spring where the Arroyo del Puerto 
has its source, and halted . . . at the Arroyo de San 
mateo... . 

‘As a result of the reconnoissance made yesterday, the 
commander decided to set out from the port by skirting 
the hills which surround it . . . and to follow the inner 
shore until he should reach the level ground. For this 
reason he sent off the pack-train by the direct road with 
orders to stop at the Arroyo de San Mateo. We our- 
selves, taking a different route . . . arrived at a beautiful 
stream, which, because this was the Friday of Sorrows 
[Friday before Palm Sunday ], we called the Arroyo de los 
Dolores.” 

Crossing the hills, the expedition moved on down the 
peninsula. “From a slight eminence,” records the padre, 
“I... noticed . . . a very high spruce tree [El] Palo 
Alto], which is to be seen at a great distance, rising . 
like a . . . tower from the Llano de los Robles—it stands 


256 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


on the banks of the Arroyo de San Francisco; later on I 
measured its height. . . 


“We travelled . . . skirting the hills until we came out 
on the plain . . . . Here the commander decided to 
. examine . . . the Canada de San Andrés, which lies 


in the range wooded with spruce—they also call this tree 
palo colorado [redwood|—to see if it contained good 
timber for the settlement at the port. 

‘* . . As we followed it we saw . . . several kinds of 
good timber: oak, madrono, spruce, . . . and other trees 

About a league back, a huge bear, which we suc- 
ceeded in killing, appeared in our path—there are many 
bears in this district. 

‘March 30.—We set out from the Arroyo de San Mateo 
. . . [and arrived] at the Arroyo de San Francisco. Beside 
this stream is the redwood tree I spoke of yesterday; I 
measured its height with the graphometer ... and... 
found it to be some fifty yards high, more or less; the 
trunk was five yards and a half in circumference at the base, 
and the soldiers said that there were still larger ones in the 
mountains” (Teggart). 

In the late afternoon, camp was made beside a small 
river, about a league from its mouth, flowing into the bay 
of San Francisco, and about eighteen leagues distant from 
the site marked for the proposed Presidio of San Fran- 
cisco. On the previous day, the vicinity of the Arroyo de 
los Dolores had seemed especially well adapted for a mis- 
sion, and at this place conditions seemed favorable for 
another. 

From there, the expedition moved on around the toe 
of the bay and up the eastern side, following the route 
traced by Padre Juan Crespi when with the Fages expedi- 
tion of 1772. 

As far as the Rio de San Francisco they went, and, turn- 
ing, as far as they were able to make their way—for every- 
thing was in flood. When watercourses could no longer 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 257 


be traced and only water and tules lay before them, they 
turned about and began the return march on April 4, and 
on the day after Easter, April 8, the expedition arrived 
at Monterey. 


No answer arriving from Captain Rivera, Anza deter- 
mined to wait no longer but to set out at once on the 
return march to Sonora. On the 12th, he despatched four 
soldiers under Sergeant José Maria Gongora with a letter 
to Captain Rivera y Moncada, requesting him to meet him 
at San Gabriel on the 25th or 26th, that they might come 
to some agreement in the matter of the San Francisco estab- 
lishments entrusted to them both. On the 13th, he crossed 
the peninsula to the Presidio of Monterey and turned over 
the command of the expedition to Lieutenant José Joaquin 
Moraga. 


Don Juan Bautista de Anza was loved and respected by 
those he had conducted safely over the sands of the desert, 
through mountain passes and across rivers, each with its 
own danger, in the long journey from Sonora into Alta 
California, and there were many tears shed the next day 
at the time of his departure. All felt keenly the withdrawal 
of his strong, kindly, guiding hand, and this feeling of 
regret was shared by the friars assembled to bid him 


Godspeed. 


XXI 


Quite a cavalcade, led by Lieutenant Colonel Anza, 
departed from the Presidio of Monterey on the morning 
of April 14, the day the homeward march was begun; in 
all, about thirty persons—some for one place, some for 
another—including soldiers and the personal escort of el 
senor comandante. ‘There were nineteen pack mules, three 
being for Mission San Antonio; and in a hamper on one 
of the mules was some unusual freight: four cats for the 
missions at San Gabriel and San Diego, overrun with rats. 

Lieutenant Moraga accompanied the party to Buenavista 
on the Rio de Monterey, about six leagues from the presidio. 
Says Font in his Diario: ‘As I knew what would happen to 
him, I said to him while parting, ‘God grant you much con- 
solation, and deliver you from the spite and aversion of 
Captain Rivera.’ 

On April 15, on the way from Buenavista to La Canada 
de San Bernabé, the soldiers, who had been despatched by 
Anza with the letter to Rivera, were met returning. The 
sergeant, the bearer of two letters from Captain Rivera, 
whom they had met not far from Mission San Antonio on 
his way to Monterey, was in a very perturbed state of 
mind and begged the comandante to grant him a few 
moments alone. He reported that when he had tendered 
the letter entrusted to him, Captain Rivera had refused 


to receive it and had bade him begone (or, according to 


Bancroft, saying, ‘“Well, well; retire!) ; but the next day, 
had demanded it, and when he had delivered the letter, 
Captain Rivera had thrust it into his pouch without open- 
ing it and had handed him the two letters he had just 
brought. He said the captain had been extremely unkind 


[ 258 ] 


. 
7 
5 
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SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 259 


to him, and had reduced him from the rank of sergeant! 
He reported the captain as approaching, not far behind him, 
in a most ungodly temper; that those who were with him 
had said that he had been excommunicated at San Diego 
for having dragged forth from the chapel, against the 
protests of the padres, one of the Indians mixed up in the 
attack on the mission, and that the captain was surely not 
in his right mind! 

Upon reading the communications just received from 
Rivera, Anza found them to be simply curt refusals to do 
anything toward the San Francisco establishments. 

Pacifying Sergeant Gongora as best he could, he sent 
him on to Monterey. 

The expedition had proceeded a little farther, when the 
wrathy captain was encountered. ‘‘‘He was wrapped in 
a blue blanket and wore a cap half covering his face, leaving 
visible no more than the right eye and a little of the beard, 
which he wore very long’”’ (Richman). 

No real halt was made; merely a few words were ex- 
changed by these two Spanish officers, perfunctory greet- 
ings, inquiries after health, Rivera saying he was ill and 
Anza that he was sorry he was. Not a syllable had been 
uttered about the San Francisco matter, in which the two 
were to cooperate in carrying out the orders of the viceroy, 
when, with only a casual “Adios, Don Juan,” Rivera put 
spurs to his mule and rode away! 

Anza was so incensed at Rivera’s open discourtesy that 
he called after him: ‘Your reply to my letter may be 
sent to Mexico or whithersoever you like!” To which 
Rivera replied, ‘‘Very well.” 


The lieutenant governor, Captain Rivera y Moncada, 
then continued on his way, arriving at Monterey on the rsth. 
But after arrival, he did not go to Carmelo, saying that 
he was not well and, for this reason, requested the padre 
presidente to visit him. Accompanied by three of the 


260 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


friars from San Carlos, Fray Junipero did so—not in the 
least expecting, or prepared to hear, what Rivera was 
about to disclose. Delivering the letters entrusted to him 
by the padres whose disapproval he had incurred, and ask- 
ing absolution, he announced “‘that Fr. Fuster of San Diego 
had excommunicated him” (Engelhardt). 

Serra withheld his decision until he could read the reports 
brought him by the culprit. 

Consulting with the five friars then at the mission, “All 
were of the opinion that Rivera without a doubt had 
incurred excommunication... . The Fr. Presidente 
then informed the captain that he approved of Fr. Fuster’s 
action, and that nothing could be done until the Indian 
Carlos had been restored to the sanctuary whence he had 
been removed without the consent of the missionaries. The 
missionary of San Diego could then give absolution . . .” 
(ibid.). 

Serra then prepared reports in the matter to be sent to 
the guardian of the College of San Fernando, Fray Fran- 
cisco Pangua, sending Fray Benito Cambon with an escort 
to overtake Don Juan Bautista de Anza and put them in 
his care for delivery. Fray Camboén was also the bearer 
of a letter from Captain Rivera to the lieutenant colonel— 
an apology and a request—asking Anza to meet him 
either at San Luis Obispo or San Gabriel. On the 
20th, the friar overtook the expedition and delivered the 
letter, together with one from Moraga, in which the 
lieutenant volunteered the opinion that the captain was 
insane. 

After Padre Cambon’s departure from Monterey—in 
fact, the very next day—Rivera, himself, set out for the 
south, and on the 21st, the day after the padre had 
delivered his letter to Anza, three soldiers, part of his 
escort, presented themselves at San Luis Obispo, saying 
that el capitan was very tired and had halted about one 


| 
. 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 261 


league out to rest. Anza now notified Rivera that he would 
confer with him, in the matter of the San Francisco expedi- 
tion, at San Gabriel—but only in writing. 

The next day, the 22d, at about noon, e/ capitan, himself, 
arrived at the mission, where he remained less than an 
hour—the two officers not meeting—drank the cup of 
chocolate offered him, and proceeded on his way! 

Anza did not resume his journey until the day after 
Rivera had passed through San Luis, taking care not to 
overtake him, not being desirous of any further conversa- 
tion with the comandante. 

(Parenthetically, in this connection, it seems advisable 
to state that dates and details of no especial importance 
vary with the original chroniclers.) 

Captain Rivera arrived at San Gabriel on April 27, and 
took up his abode at the mission. But when Lieutenant 
Colonel Anza arrived on the 29th, although welcomed by 
the friars, he declined their hospitality and remained in 
camp. He sent to Rivera maps of his surveys, with descrip- 
tions, and places marked for presidio, mission, and settle- 
ment. But he was unyielding, all communications between 
the two being in writing. 

A flash light thrown by Padre Font—an exposition in 
very few words—gives a clearly defined glimpse of the 
situation. He records: ‘April 30.—We remained at this 
mission, and the two commanders communicated with each 
other in writing concerning their affairs. May 1.—The two 
commanders continued their correspondence” (Teggart). 

This was Rivera’s second experience of this kind, since 
his arrival in Alta California as lieutenant governor. 


The march to Sonora began on May 2,—Captain Rivera 
leaving San Gabriel for San Diego on the 3d,—but at the 
Santa Ana River, again a messenger overtook the expedi- 
tion, the bearer of a letter from Rivera “who wrote that 


262 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


he had been so busy over the papers in the affair at San 
Diego that he had had no time to write to his excellency, 
the viceroy. He begged Anza to make his excuses to the 
viceroy and at the same time enclosed him a letter to be 
delivered to the father guardian of the College of San 
Fernando. Anza, who was out of patience with Rivera’s 
trifling and considered it disrespectful for him to write to 
the guardian and not to the viceroy, refused to receive 
the letter and sent it back’”’ (Eldredge). 

The expedition reached Laguna de Santa Olalla on the 
morning of May g, and on the 1,\th was at Puerto de la 
Concepcion, on the Rio Colorado. 

Fray Tomas Eixarch was found at this place, but Garces 
had not returned and no news had been received from him. 
The expedition was able to report that he had appeared 
at Mission San Gabriel in Holy Week, disappearing through 
a pass in the mountains into the wilds again. 


On September 17 of that year, 1776, Garces arrived at 
his own mission, San Xavier del Bac, having journeyed, 
after leaving San Gabriel, by way of the Tulare Valley back 
to Mojave and down the river to Yuma, and on up the Gila, 
—having traveled more than nine hundred leagues—and, 
according to Arricivita, having seen “more than twenty-five 
thousand Indians.” 


The Colorado was in flood and rising fast, leagues in 
width and, because of boggy ground, unapproachable both 
above and below where it was forced into a narrow channel 
some four hundred varas in length and about one hundred 
in width, between low hills. Here, the current was terrific, 
but the ground to the water’s edge was firm. At this place, 
the crossing needs must be made, and, with preparations 
and concluding details, the better part of four days, which 
included all of two, was thus consumed. Rafts had to be 
convoyed by thirty or forty Indians swimming beside them 


Se ee 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 263 


to direct their course, but the passage was attended with 
both difficulty and danger. Eddies had to be reckoned 
with, and at one perilous moment, when a raft was about 
to be submerged, more than two hundred Indians were in 
the water struggling to save it. Rafts were greatly dam- 
aged in transit by the tremendous force of the water, one 
being broken up and never reaching its destination. ‘Uhere- 
fore, everything possible was ‘“‘divided into small portions 
. . . [and] sent over in coritas [large, shallow, water-tight 
baskets], and cajetes grandes [flat, earthen bowls], which 
the women, swimming, pushed before them like little boats. 
Owing to the swiftness of the current a woman would 
have to swim more than fifteen hundred varas—four-fifths 
of a mile—in going and coming, and they had to bring 
back the empty vessels. Anza says that some of the women 
made twelve trips. All they asked for the service was a 
few glass beads, which Anza gave them in abundance”’ 
(ibid.). 

No missionaries having arrived since the departure of 
the caravan for Alta California, Lieutenant Colonel Anza 
found Palma had made preparations, delegated his author- 
ity, and in accordance with the promise made him, was 
Waiting to accompany el senor comandante to Mexico. 
Therefore, on May 15, when Don Juan Bautista proceeded 
on his way, he had with him the Yuma chief and his 
retinue of three other Indians. 

The return was through Papagueria, Caborca, and Altar 
to San Miguel de Horcasitas. 


After arriving at San Diego, the comandante, Rivera y 
Moncada, notified Moraga that there would be at least 
a year’s delay before the Presidio of San Francisco could 
be established, following this immediately by orders to the 
lieutenant to proceed to the port of San Francisco with 
twenty soldiers, to establish the fort on the site selected 
by Lieutenant Colonel Anza; but, says Engelhardt, “‘know- 


264 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


ing that this would keenly pain the Fr. Presidente, Rivera 
instructed Moraga to postpone the founding of the missions 
and to inform Fr. Serra to that effect.” 

On the same day, May 8, Rivera ordered Sergeant 
Pablo Grijalva to proceed to Monterey, taking with him 
the twelve soldiers from Sonora and their families, who 
were still at San Gabriel. Arriving at Monterey on the 28th, 
Grijalva delivered the despatches to Moraga. Moraga 
informed Serra of the dictum of the lieutenant governor in 
the matter of the missions, and stated that he would set 
out for the port of San Francisco about the middle of 
June, to carry out orders. Serra detailed Padres Palou 
and Cambon to accompany him. 

On June 3, the San Carlos, under command of Captain 
Fernando Quirés, who had as pilotos José Canizares and 
Cristobal Revilla, arrived at the port of Monterey, under 
orders from the viceroy which brightened the outlook of 
the padre presidente: to convey to their destination every- 
thing of every description for the San Francisco estab- 
lishments, including church properties and the belongings 
of the colonists. 

On June 17, when Moraga led his expedition away from 
the presidio, the two friars from the San Carlos, Vicente 
de Santa Maria and José Nocedal, accompanied him as far 
as the Rio de Monterey, returning from there to make ready 
to follow by sea. With Lieutenant Moraga were Sergeant 
Grijalva, two corporals, sixteen soldiers, and seven colon- 
ists, all with their families except the lieutenant, whose wife 
did not accompany him to Alta California. There were — 
two servants, three neophytes, and, in charge of the pack 
mules and two hundred head of cattle, five arrieros and 
vaqueros—all Indians. 

The journey was made slowly, because of the women and 
children; nevertheless, on June 27, at La Laguna de Nuestra 
Senora de los Dolores, named by Don Juan Bautista de 
Anza in the spring of the same year, fifteen tents were 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 265 


pitched. The next day, the lieutenant ordered an enramada 
—a brushwood shelter—built, to serve as a temporary 
chapel. The first mass was sung on the 29th, by Padre 
Palou. 

Four days before arriving at their destination, they had 
come upon a herd of elks and many deer and antelopes. 
Three elks were killed for food, one, says Palou, with 
antlers, sixteen palmos—twelve feet—from tip to tip. 
Indians, everywhere, had been very friendly, eating every- 
thing given them but refusing to drink milk. 


Having waited from day to day, in expectancy, for the 
arrival of the San Carlos—when a month had disappeared 
into time, once lost, forever gone—Moraga determined 
to wait no longer but to proceed with the building of the 
fort; and, also, without orders from any one, gave permis- 
sion for permanent buildings to be erected at Dolores for 
the padres. Leaving with them two colonists, six soldiers 
for the guard, and the cattle allotted to the mission, the 
lieutenant, with the rest of the expedition, then proceeded 
up the peninsula to the presidio site, and began the con- 
struction of brushwood huts for temporary use. The first 
structure was a chapel, and in it, Padre Palou celebrated 
the first mass on the 28th of July. 

The San Carlos, already delayed by having to await per- 
mission from Captain Rivera at San Diego to remove the 
cannon from the Presidio of Monterey to the proposed site 
of the Presidio of San Francisco, put to sea after the 
order had been received, but immediately ran into a gale 
that drove her as far south as the latitude of San Diego. 
Turning about at last, she sailed as far north as latitude 42°, 
where, turning again, she ran down the coast, dropping 
anchor on August 17 off Point Reyes; and, on the morning 
of the 18th, passed through the entrance, a little more 
than a year after she had nosed her way in, in the dusk 
of the evening of August 1, 1775, under command of Cap- 


266 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


tain Don Juan Manuel de Ayala, the first vessel to enter 
the great inland sea. 

Work was now begun on the permanent buildings for 
the presidio, following plans prepared by José Canizares, 
consisting of a chapel, quarters for the officers, barracks for 
the soldiers, accommodations for the colonists, and a guard- 
house, built of timber palisades, thatched with tules, and 
all set within a square ninety-two varas on each side. ‘This 
under way, Captain Quirdéds of the San Carlos, Padre 
Nocedal, one piloto, the ship’s surgeon, and six soldiers 
betook themselves to Laguna de los Dolores, to help the 
friars with permanent buildings of similar construction, 
which Lieutenant Moraga, knowing the wishes of the vice- 
roy but without authority from the comandante of Alta 
California, had given them permission to erect. The mis- 
sion buildings were finished by the middle of September. 

On September 17, the Presidio of San Francisco was 
dedicated. It was thought best, although much had already 
been dared, to wait for authority from the comandante for 
the formal dedication of Mission San Francisco de Asis, 
at Dolores; so, tentatively, October 4 was named for that 
ceremony. 

All were present from both camps at the dedication of 
the presidio, when the great cross was raised and blessed, 
and mass sung by Padre Fray Francisco Palou, assisted by 
the three padres, Cambén, Nocedal, and Pena. Formal 
possession was taken in the name of the king; and the 
ceremonies were then concluded by the singing of the Te 
Deum Laudamus, after which bells were rung, muskets were 
fired, and cannon roared. 

The rest of the day was given up to feasting, games, and 
whatever amusements were possible. | 


Captain Quirés and Lieutenant Moraga now decided to 
cooperate in making additional surveys and explorations in 
the vicinity of the Rio de San Francisco. Quirds, accom- 


“ 
eS a ee eee 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 267 


panied by José Canizares, Padre Cambon, and a few sailors, 
with eight days’ rations, departed in the ship’s boat up the 
bay. On the same day, Moraga, with eight soldiers, set out 
by land down the peninsula, skirting the southern end of the 
bay and proceeding up the other side. He then crossed 
the Contra Costa Mountains to the Rio de San Francisco, 
about which there had been so many surmises, but too late 
to join forces with Quirés. Most of the provisions for the 
expedition were carried by the Moraga party, and when 
nothing was seen of them, Quiros, fearing his own pro- 
visions would give out, did not wait, but turned about, 
hugging the bay shore on the opposite side on his way back, 
penetrating inlets and streams, and, to a certain extent 
—to his own satisfaction, at least,—determining that the 
only opening out of the great harbor into the ocean was 
that through which the San Carlos had entered, and on 
September 29, was back again at the presidio. 


October 3 came around; and the little chapel at Dolores 
had been made festive and ready for the formal dedica- 
tion planned for the next day, the fiesta of San Francisco. 
No authority to proceed with the dedication had been 
received from the comandante, and Lieutenant Moraga 
had not yet returned! What to do! Certain things were, 
however, permissible. On the evening of October 3, there- 
fore, the building was blessed. The 4th, and still the lieu- 
tenant was not at hand to assume the responsibility. A high 
mass was celebrated—and that was all. 


After having crossed the mountains to the strait, and 
knowing that he was too late to codperate with Quirés, 
Moraga ascended to the top of a mountain for a bird’s-eye 
view of the country and thought that he could discern, in 
the plain lying beneath him, five separate rivers, all con- 
verging to form one: the great river named by Captain 
Don Pedro Fages and Padre Fray Juan Crespi, in 1772, 


268 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


El Rio de San Francisco—The River of San Francisco. 
Descending, he forded the first of these rivers (the San 
Joaquin) and set out across a great treeless, level plain, 
where no Indians were encountered, no game seen, and 
where no water was in evidence, while overhead the rays 
of the sun made themselves uncomfortably felt. Moraga 
turned and, following the route by which he had come, 
reached La Laguna de los Dolores on October 7. No 
authority to proceed with the founding of the mission hav- 
ing as yet been received, Moraga gave the necessary order; 
and on the gth, with the usual ceremonies, Mission San 
Francisco de Asis at Dolores was founded. 


Having decided to rebuild Mission San Diego de Alcala 
and refound San Juan Capistrano, Fray Junipero Serra, on 
June 30, less than two weeks after the departure of the 
Moraga San Francisco expedition from Monterey, sailed 
on the San Antonio and arrived at San Diego on July 11. 
For the rebuilding he had in mind, he asked the assistance 
of the commander of the San Antonio, Don Diego Choquet 
de Isla, who responded like a gentleman (“respondido 
como caballero’’), that not only would his sailors be de- 
tailed for the rebuilding but that he, himself, would do the 
work of an ordinary laborer. 

Those who made up Serra’s “construction corps,” in one 
capacity or another, leaving the presidio for the site of 
the destroyed mission on August 22, 1776, were two friars, 
Captain Choquet, one piloto, a boatswain, twenty armed 
sailors, thirty or forty neophytes, with a corporal and five 
soldiers detailed by the comandante as a guard. Work was 
begun with a will, all lending a hand, carrying stones, laying 
foundations, preparing material, and making adobes. In 
fifteen days, seven thousand adobes were ready to be 
used. 

On September 8, the comandante, in propria persona, 
arrived on the busy scene, announcing that because of news 


oe 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 269 


of a proposed attack by the Indians, work must cease on 
the mission buildings. 

A lengthy colloquy between Captain Rivera and Captain 
Choquet followed, in which Rivera was much irritated by 
Choquet, who questioned the reliability of the information 
received by the comandante and wished to continue the 
work. Rivera, and, perhaps, properly, was not to be 
argued into consenting that the work should proceed, and 
put an end to the discussion by ordering the mission guard 
to return to the presidio. ‘Thereupon, work was suspended. 

On September 28, there was still another turn in affairs— 
for the better, from Serra’s point of view,—when des- 
patches were received, followed by the arrival at the 
presidio, on the 29th, of Corporal Guillermo Carrillo with 
recruits from Guadalajara and a letter from Bucareli, saying 
that the principal business of the day was the reéstablish- 
ment of the San Diego mission and the refounding of San 
Juan Capistrano; this, to Serra, but despatches came to 
Rivera as well. 

Fray Junipero, upon occasion, did not hesitate to disturb 
the peace of another who attempted to thwart him in his 
work in Alta California, and upon the receipt of these 
“glad tidings of great joy” he set all the bells a-ringing, and 
the next morning sang a high mass! 

Rivera changed his orders, releasing the Indian prisoners, 
and detailing to Mission San Diego twelve of the recruits 
who had arrived with Corporal Carrillo. A corporal and 
ten men were assigned to Mission San Juan Capistrano, 
and two to San Gabriel. 

San Juan Capistrano now held the attention of the padre 
presidente. Padre Lasuén’s cross, erected on October 30, 
1775, was found still standing. ‘The bells that had been 
buried were disinterred, and mass was celebrated on 
All Saints’ Day, November 1, 1776. To secure neophytes 
for the work, and to have supplies and cattle sent to the 
mission, Serra went in person to San Gabriel. Then, when 


270 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


all had been arranged satisfactorily, the padre presidente 
took his leave and began the journey to his own mission, 
San Carlos at Carmelo, visiting all the missions on the way, 
and arriving at Monterey on January I, 1777. 


On October 28, 1774, before the second Anza expedi- 
tion, Don Felipe de Neve, a major in a cavalry regiment 
at Querétaro, had been appointed Governor of the Cali- 
fornias to supersede Governor Felipe de Barri, but did not 
arrive at Loreto until March 4, 1775. 

Soon after the appointment of Neve, although this was 
not known in Alta California, the government had decided 
to transfer the capital, but it had not been done. When, 
in 1776, things were not going well there, Bucareli, taking 
advantage of the neglected royal decree, named Monterey 
as the capital of the Californias. The residence of the 
governor would, of course, be at that place, while that of 
the lieutenant governor would be at Loreto. 

The removal of Don Pedro Fages, at the urgent sug- 
gestion of Serra, and the appointment of Don Fernando 
Xavier de Rivera y Moncada to supersede him had not 
resulted happily (as had been predicted by Don José de 
Galvez, in Spain, when informed of the matter by Arriaga), 
for missions and missionaries had been cast “‘out of the fry- 
ing pan into the fire.” 


The Guardian of the College of San Fernando informed 


Fray Junipero Serra of the transfer in a letter in answer 
to his, sent on its way to Mexico in charge of Don Juan 
Bautista de Anza. He “‘also expressed his regret that the 
Fathers had found it necessary to have recourse to excom- 
munication, and added that he with the discretos of the 
College had decided to take no further steps in view of 
Rivera’s transfer to the peninsula” (Engelhardt). 
Neither had things gone very smoothly in Baja Cali- 
fornia between Governor Neve and the Dominicans, and 


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SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 271 


thus, at one stroke, two complications might be adjusted. 
Says Bancroft: ‘Had Rivera’s peculiar conduct been known 
in Spain it is not likely that he would have been retained 
in office; but the viceroy hoped that in a new field he might 
succeed better.”’ 

Lieutenant Governor Rivera y Moncada, with an escort 
of twelve soldiers, began the march northward from San 
Diego on the 11th or 12th of October, leaving there before 
the reopening of the mission. 

While still at the Presidio of San Diego, before his de- 
parture for the north, Rivera received official information 
of the removal of the capital of the Californias from Loreto 
to Monterey, and of his own transfer to Baja California. 
At San Luis Obispo, he was informed of the founding of 
the mission at Dolores. If he felt any dissatisfaction at 
Moraga’s assumption of authority, he did not so express 
himself. At Monterey, he announced that he was ready to 
establish Mission Santa Clara; and, taking Padre Tomas 
de la Pena with him, arrived at San Francisco on the 26th 
of November. On the 27th, he visited the new mission 
and approved of all that had been done! On the 29th, he 
set out to follow up the recent explorations made by Mor- 
aga, who accompanied him, but was obliged to turn back. 
The great dry plain was now very wet, everything in that 
region being in flood. There was now no chance of suc- 
cess, and every chance of their return being cut off should 
they venture too far. ‘The rainy season was upon them. 
Returning as they had come, they were met by a courier 
with the news that all the buildings at San Luis Obispo 
had been burned by the Indians. The comandante hastened 
to the scene of the uprising, where he captured the ring- 
leaders and sent them to Monterey, whither he followed. 
From there, he instructed Moraga to proceed with the 
founding of Mission Santa Clara. 

On January 5, 1777, the lieutenant gathered together 
the contingent of men, women, and children assigned to 


272 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


the new mission, and the march thence was begun. Stop- 
ping for the night at Mission Dolores, where Padre de la 
Pena was added to the party, the march was taken up again 
the next morning. 

Soldiers were sent on to Monterey to escort the other 
friar for Santa Clara from that place to the scene of his 
labors, and to bring up the mission goods. 

On the 7th, camp was made on the bank of the Rio de 
Guadalupe. A site for the mission was sought, and one, 
seemingly very desirable, was found about three leagues 
inland from the bay shore, on the bank of a creek from 
which water could be conducted for irrigation, and with 
many other recommendations. At this place, the cross was 
raised and a temporary chapel constructed. On January 12, 
the first mass was celebrated. 

When Padre Murguia and the mission paraphernalia 
arrived on the 21st, Moraga departed for the Presidio of 
San Francisco. 


XXII 


The transfer of the capital of the Californias from 
Loreto to Monterey was but part of a logical sequence of 
events, Alta California having become the more important. 
The royal order finally bringing this about, directing that 
the change be made immediately, and, perhaps, preceded 
by one the previous year, is dated April 19, 1776. 

A suggestion that the Governor of the Californias should 

reside at Monterey, made the year before, was repeated 
in the spring of 1775 by Galvez, in a letter to Bucareli in 
regard to other matters, and, about the same time of the 
next year, after he became ministro general de las Indias, 
was followed by more definite instructions. 

The viceroy forwarded the order under date of July 20, 
1776, and, a few days later, reported to Galvez that the 
order had been transmitted. His instructions to Governor 
Neve as to Alta California, dated December 25 of the 
same year, reiterated former orders, changed others, and 
introduced new ones. 

Early in the next year, February 3, 1777, Governor Don 
Felipe de Neve arrived at Monterey and took up his resi- 
dence there. 

He had been officially instructed as to his attitude toward 
the missionaries and warned to go carefully in mission 
affairs. This should not have been very necessary after 
his own experience in Baja California where he was con- 
tinually at outs with the Dominicans, and the unhappy state 
of affairs there under Governor Felipe de Barri, with which, 
as well as with the notorious and constant friction between 


[ 273 ] 


274 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


his predecessors and the Franciscans in Alta California, he 
must have been conversant. He should have been an adept 
and well able to steer clear of difficulties. But, at least, he 
knew the value of a good beginning, for, after a review 
of the troops, he made it his first duty to enter upon his 
relations with the padre presidente in all friendliness. After 
a consultation with Fray Junipero Serra, his first report 
to the viceroy from Alta California, dated February 25, 
was despatched. 

Early in March, probably the 3d, Captain Rivera y 
Moncada set out from Monterey on his way to the Pen- 
insula, to continue there as lieutenant governor, with his 
official residence at Loreto. He was escorted southward by 
the soldiers who had acted as escort to Governor Neve 
from Loreto to Monterey. 

Felipe de Neve, although he was Governor of the Cali- 
fornias, was vested with little more authority in Alta Cali- 
fornia than had been Rivera, who, as lieutenant governor, 
had reported to the viceroy direct. But they were men of 
such different caliber that much the same power was wielded 
to very different purpose. Rivera, in Baja California, was 
relegated to a more subordinate position than he had previ- 
ously occupied. 


Because of the tremendous expense incurred in the ship- 
ment of grain to the Californias, the necessity had been 
repeatedly urged of putting that province upon a grain-pro- 
ducing basis, and, while still at Loreto, in June, 1776, 
before he knew of his transfer, Neve brought before the 
viceroy the matter of the experimental sowing of grain — 
by the government. The viceroy approved the idea but 
answered, in August, that in view of Neve’s departure 
from the Peninsula in the near future, the experiment might — 
be undertaken to better advantage in the fertile lands © 
farther north, or, as suggested by Anza, along the Rio 
Colorado. 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 275 


During the journey and tour of inspection combined, 
from the old capital to the new, and from that to San 
Francisco and back to Monterey, Neve noted two spots 
admirably well adapted to this purpose, one in the south 
on the Rio Porciuncula, and the other in the north on the 


Rio de Guadalupe. 


The first vessel to sail direct from San Blas to the port 
of San Francisco, one of the transports for 1777, the 
frigate Santiago—captain, Ignacio Arteaga; pilot, Francisco 
Castro; chaplain, Fray José Nocedal;—cast anchor there 
on May 12, sailing again on the 27th and arriving at Mon- 
terey on the next day. 

By the Santiago, which sailed from Monterey on June 8, 
Governor Neve forwarded to the viceroy a long report on 
the Indians of the Santa Barbara Channel and his personal 
conclusions as to the conversion and control of a large 
native population. Because of the great distances between 
the presidios and missions already established and the ease 
with which communication might be cut off between them 
by the savages, he urged the founding in that locality of 
a presidio and three missions: one at Asuncidn, at the 
southern tip of the channel coast—the long delayed Mis- 
sion San Buenaventura; another at the northern extremity, 
near Point Concepcion—La Purisima; and the presidio 
and the third mission—Santa Barbara—between the other 
two, near Mescaltitlan. This was dated June 3, 1777. 
The next day, having been in official residence at Monterey 
only five months, but five very busy months, investigating, 
systematizing, preparing statements to the viceroy, arrang- 
ing to put everything within his jurisdiction in proper run- 
ning order,—right in the middle of all these beginnings, 
this model of efficiency became for the moment strangely 
inconsistent, or the victim of an acute attack of nostalgia, 
and wrote another letter, dated the 4th, asking permis- 
sion to resign because of ill health after seven years’ 


276 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


service in Zacatecas and because he wished to return to 
Spain to his family, whom he had not seen since 1764— 
thirteen years! ‘This was replied to by the viceroy, who 
wrote, under date of January 14 of the next year, 1778, 
that his request for permission to retire had been forwarded 
to the king and, no doubt, would be entertained with favor. 
-In May, Neve sent in his formal resignation, and in August, 
thanked the viceroy for a favorable report thereon; but, 
two months later, asked Bucareli to hold back his memorials 
on the subject, and on the same day, Don Felipe wrote 
thanking the king for a promotion to a colonelcy in the 
regular army of Spain. Could that have had anything 
to do with his change of heart? 

Twenty-two communications were despatched by the 
Governor of the Californias to the Viceroy of New Spain 
during the first half of the year 1777. How many the last 
half is not known because many have been lost. By this 
time -(the fall of 1777), Neve had grasped the entire situa- 
tion, asking for instructions and constantly making practical 
suggestions. 

The urge of initiative was strong within him, and, with 
very little ado, el senor gobernador ordered Lieutenant 
José Joaquin Moraga to get together such settlers as had 
arrived with the Anza expedition and such soldier-colonists 
as might be spared from the presidios of Monterey and 
San Francisco, and to proceed with them to the Rio de 
Guadalupe, there to establish a pueblo according to instruc- 
tions furnished him. This step was taken by Neve without 
specific orders, but it was distinctly led up to. 

Nine soldiers and five settlers, with their families, sixty- 
six persons of all ages, “all lying idle at San Francisco,” 
according to Palou, set out from there on November 7. 


Arriving at their destination, a site for the pueblo was — 
chosen on the eastern bank of the river, about three quarters — 


of a league from Mission Santa Clara. Huts were built, 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA Q77 


the river dammed, and each colonist was apportioned a 

house lot—solar—and land enough to sow a fanega— 

about a bushel and a half—of grain. As the first pueblo 

founded by the Spaniards in Alta California, it was a small 

but important beginning. The name of the new pueblo was 

San José de Guadalupe and the date of the founding, 
November 29, 1777. 


In June, 1777, Indians of the rancherias in the vicinity 
of San Juan Capistrano began to give trouble and to 
threaten the neophytes at the mission. Corporal Carrillo 
was sent out with a squad to bring them to reason, and 
ended by killing three and wounding several. Lieutenant 
Ortega then despatched Sergeant Aguiar to investigate. 
Again, the irregular conduct of the soldiers with the Indian 
women was toblame. A highly discreditable state of affairs 
was disclosed, and an Indian chief, who had been acting 
as panderer of native women to the mission guard, was 
given fifteen lashes and an admonition by the padre, while 
two of the soldiers with whom he had been in league were 
bundled off to San Diego. 

At San Gabriel, natives in hostile mood came to the mis- 
sion, armed and ready to avenge some outrage. ‘Then was 
a scene staged between the irate savages and the padres, 
which makes a pleasanter story than the preceding; it is, 
at least, “‘a twice-told tale,” and the subject of a poem. 
As it comes to us, these Indians were subdued suddenly “‘as 
by a miracle, when the friars held up a shining image of 
our lady, kneeling, weeping, and embracing the mission- 
aries” (Bancroft). 

Disturbances continued from time to time and in 
February of the next year, 1778, Corporal Carrillo was 
again needed at San Juan Capistrano, where Indians 
from several rancherias were assembled and _threaten- 


278 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


ing. This time, the cause was no less than an elope- 
ment of an Indian woman and a Baja Californian who 
was, without doubt, a neophyte, else the friars would 
not have been thought responsible. The natives were 
being incited to attack by the deserted husband, ostensibly 
to avenge the killing of their tribesman by Carrillo the 
year before. 

In March, more trouble was brewing. A San Juan Indian 
had been killed by the hostiles, and Indians at Pamo 
were reported as busily engaged in arrow making. Other 
rancherias as far away as across the sierra were in sym- 
pathy with a proposed attack. 

Ortega despatched Corporal Carrillo to put an end to 
the affair in its incipiency. At Paméd, he surprised the plot- 
ters and killed two of them. Some who took refuge in a 
hut and refused to come out were burned. ‘The rest sur- 
rendered. ‘Thirty or forty lashes each were given to those 
who seemed to merit them, but the four chieftains, Aaaran, 
Aalcuiran, Aachil, and Taguagui, were bound and taken 
to San Diego. ‘There, on April 6, they were tried and 
convicted of plotting ‘‘to kill Christians in spite of the 
mercy shown them in the king’s name for past offences and 
condemned to death by Ortega, though that officer had no 
right to inflict the death penalty, even on an Indian, with- 
out the governor’s approval.” 

‘The sentence was: ‘Deeming it useful to the service 
of God, the king, and the public weal, I sentence them to 
a violent death by two musket-shots on the 11th at 9 A. M., 
the troops to be present at the execution under arms, also 
all the Christian rancherias subject to the San Diego mis- 
sion, that they may be warned to act righteously.’ Fathers 
Lasuen and Figuer were summoned to prepare the con- 
demned for their end. ‘You will codperate,’ writes Ortega 
to the padres, ‘for the good of their souls in the understand- 
ing that if they do not accept the salutary waters of holy 


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SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 279 


baptism they die on Saturday morning; and if they do—they 
die all the same!’ 
‘*This was the first public execution in California” (ibid.). 


Among the orders received from the viceroy was one on 
the subject of the English navigator, Captain James Cook, 
now on his third voyage around the world. 

Cook was in command of an expedition consisting of two 
vessels: the Resolution, his own, and the Discovery, under 
command of Captain Charles Clerke. On this voyage, the 
orders under which he sailed were somewhat menacing to 
Spain. He was to ascertain definitely, and from the Pacific 
side, whether the Northwest Passage—the Strait of Anian, 
under its English name—did in reality exist; also, and 
under secret orders, he was to explore the coast, gain such 
information as he could, and such lands as had not been 
discovered by other Europeans were to be taken possession 
of in the name of His Majesty, King George III. 

Neve was ordered to be on the lookout for these two 
vessels, and under no circumstances to allow them to enter 
the ports. 

In the year 1778, Captain Cook rediscovered the 
Hawaiian Islands (discovered by Juan Gaetano, a Span- 
lard, in 1542), and passing on up, touched the North 
American coast at about 40°. Some furs, purchased from 
the natives, were afterward sold in China for such good 
prices that a very long story has to be told of all that — 
resulted therefrom. The expedition entered Bering Strait 
and proceeded until turned back by ice. Returning for the 
winter to the Islands, Captain Cook was murdered by the 
natives, in February, 1779, in revenge for a flogging given 
one of them for stealing. Captain Clerke then took com- 
mand and again the expedition attempted to penetrate the 
mysteries of the north through Bering Strait. Again 


280 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


turned back by ice, the expedition, without settling the 
question of the northwest passage and without appearing 
at all off any of the ports of Alta California, continued on 
around the world to England. Nevertheless, Captain 
James Cook had greatly increased the danger of foreign 
encroachment, not only by the sale of the furs, but, also, 
by discovering how the death toll might be cut, barring 
accidents, from forty to seventy-five per cent on every long 
voyage to almost nothing. On his first voyage, 1768-71, 
there was only one death from sickness out of four deaths 
all told. 


Following the advent of Governor Neve, improvements 
were in order. The stockade at Monterey was very inade- 
quate as a defense, and was replaced by a stone wall five 
hundred and thirty-seven yards in circumference, twelve 
feet high, and four feet thick, entirely finished by the 
3d of July, 1778, at which time, barracks one hundred and 
thirty-six by eighteen feet were almost ready for occupancy. 

It had been proposed by Lieutenant Governor Rivera y 
Moncada to remove the Presidio of Monterey to the 
Salinas River, perhaps to be farther away from Mission 
San Carlos at Carmelo, on the ground that there was a 
lack both of water and of good soil at Monterey. The 
viceroy had favored this, but it had met with no favor in 
Spain, and the royal order transmitted by Bucareli was to 
the effect that “the presidio must be maintained where it 
was at any cost, for the protection of the port” (Bancroft). 


Under the new governor, Alta California was under- 
going a thorough overhauling, the missions along with 
everything else; or, it might be said, especially the missions. 

Old laws in new dresses were being brought out and 
given a chance to see what they could do in new environ- 
ment. : 

The padres did not know what to expect next. Some of 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 281 


the orders received at the missions were very disturbing, 
but none ever more so than that received in December, 
1778, in reference to alcaldes and regidores. By the Law 
of the Indies, Indians were required to dwell in pueblos, 
choosing for themselves alcaldes—mayors and justices of 
the peace combined—and regidores—councilmen; but it 
appears that in that law there was nothing at all about 
missions. It had in view the reduction of Indians to civil 
life, but scarcely the type found in the Californias. There 
are few lower specimens of humanity than were these 
Indians. 

At San Carlos and San Diego, the missionaries were told 
to put the neophytes through their paces in the matter of 
electing two alcaldes and two regidores from among them- 
selves. At San Antonio, San Luis Obispo, and San Gabriel, 
the population was to be considered and the number of 
those officials was to be in proportion. They were to be 
taken entirely from under the control of the padres. At 
the missions, these ‘‘officials’”’ could not be put in the stocks 
nor could the lash be applied, for, automatically, upon elec- 
tion, alcaldes and regidores were to be exempt from pun- 
ishment short of the presidios—in some cases forty leagues 
distant. With the full knowledge that no punishment could 
be inflicted, their baton and uniform would mean to them 
simply badges of emancipation from all restraint—a license 
to do as they pleased. Looked at in its application to the 
missions of Alta California, it was an iniquitous law. But 
the order had been issued, and there it was! 

The padres were horrified, and one cannot but be in 
sympathy with them. It was unthinkable! It has been so 
often demonstrated how unwise and, sometimes, how dan- 
gerous it is to endow the unfit with sudden power. 

Some of the missionaries were so nonplused at the 
extraordinary situation looming up—Indian officials to con- 
trol the neophytes at the missions, and they, themselves, not 
under control of the missionaries—that they informed the 


282 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


padre presidente they would retire from the field at the 
expiration of their terms. As their terms were now expir- 
ing, Serra was in a very unhappy position; and, in addition 
to the order itself, the governor was none too kind, per- 
sonally, in the matter. As an instance: In a letter to Padre 
Lasuén, dated March 29, 1779, the padre presidente wrote: 
‘‘T have pleaded . . . for the suspension of the elections. 
Yesterday, Palm Sunday, which I celebrated at the presidio, 
we exchanged a few words before holy Mass, when the 
governor said to me something so far from the truth that 
I changed my attitude and grew indignant. I told him that 
no one had ever said such a thing to me, because no one 
could have said it to me. He replied with a faint smile 
that he too was a logician, thus giving me to understand 
that what he said to me was inferred, though it was not 
true in itself. To this I retorted that it was very bad logic, 
since not by a great stretch of imagination did it allow 
such an inference. With some irony he said that I should 
not be aggrieved, because it would remain between us two. 
I told him that this was too much for my feelings, even 
though it remained with only one. .. . Such was my prep- 
aration for the holy Mass . . .’”’ (Engelhardt). 

Serra does not give even the substance of Neve’s offensive 
remark—or innuendo—but it must have been very offensive 
indeed. 

He continues: “ ‘I had great difficulty trying to compose 
myself before the altar. .. . The dispute was about 
alcaldes. ‘The rest of the day I was in distress unable to 
remove the impression, and I was making thousands of 
plans as to what was expedient to do. I set to work writing 
a letter to the said Senor, and I intended to include the 
one from Your Reverence as well as the one from Fr. Juan 
Figuer, in which you ask me for permission to retire in 
case the elections were held. . . . In every clause which 
I wrote something inexpedient would appear; so I stopped, 
thought and thought again. After struggling with that 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 283 


wretched letter till about midnight, ...I took a new 
sheet of paper and went to work writing a letter to Fr. 


Siciceere finished, closed,:addressed it... . Then 
I returned to the struggle, but with the same result... ’”” 
(ibid.). 


The end of it was, the letter was not written. 

The night was far advanced and, realizing that he must 
have some sleep, the agitated padre retired—but no- sleep 
came. 

Overwrought, wide awake, unable to dissociate himself 
from pursuing thoughts of the unnecessary, petty annoy- 
ances being forced upon him daily, in sheer desperation, he 
says, he exclaimed: ‘“‘ ‘What is it, Lord!’”’ and that some- 
thing within him answered with perfect distinctness, in the 
words of St. Matthew X, 16, “ ‘Be ye, therefore, wise as 


serpents and harmless as doves’ ’’; but, of course, to Fray 
Junipero, the words were: “ ‘Prudentes sicut serpentes, et 
simplices sicut columbe.’”’ With a feeling of relief, he 
answered, ‘‘ ‘Yes, Lord, yes, Lord, so it shall be with Thy 
grace!” 

And thus peace came to his troubled soul; and he fell 
asleep. 


Rising, refreshed and feeling that direct spiritual guid- 
ance had been vouchsafed him, he acted accordingly. 

But, withal, the padre presidente was vastly practical, as 
is shown in the very next sentence in this letter to Padre 
Lasuén, in which he says: “ ‘Well, what I have thought out 
is that what the caballero demands should be executed, but 
in such a way that it cannot cause the least commotion 
among the natives... . Let Francisco [one of the 
Indians who was by way of being some sort of a policeman ] 
with the same baton and coat which he has be the first 
alcalde. It is nothing more than a change in the name. 
Let the chief of one of the rancherias . . . be the other 

.’” (ibid., where quoted). 
Therefore, without more ado, alcaldes and regidores 


284 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


were installed at all the missions. Much diplomacy was 
used, but the resulting evils were even worse than had been 
feared. All sorts of things happened, but, according to 
program, the elections were held. 

Says Engelhardt: ‘“The moment these Indians saw them- 
selves clothed with a little authority and exempt from. . . 
punishment . . . they availed themselves of their privi- 
leges to gratify their inclinations... .” 

Before the year had elapsed, there was trouble at every 
mission. ‘To expect these Indians not to run amuck was 
expecting the impossible to occur. 


Under the Echeveste reglamento, certain double rations, 
amounting to three reales, about thirty-seven and a half 
cents a day for each double ration, were allowed the mis- 
sions for five years, until their crops were assured, super- 
numeraries, also, receiving this double ration but no stipend. 
San Francisco and Santa Clara were founded while this 
reglamento was in effect, and their five years had not yet 
expired when they were notified that these rations would 
cease because of the scarcity of provisions. This order was 
upheld. 

Guards were not allowed to care for the few horses kept 
at the missions, along with their own. But one order issued 
was one too many: that no friar should be changed or 
retired ‘‘to the College,’ even with permission from the pre- 
lates, “without a license from the governor.” And captains 
of transports were forbidden to take on board any friar 
unless he had such license. In this, the Guardian of San 
Fernando appealed to the new viceroy, Martin de Mayorga, 
for help, and got it, for through the proper channel the 
message went forth that: “ “The missionaries may use their 
permit to retire whenever it is expedient, without the license 
of said governor [‘‘sin licencia de aquel gobernador”’], save 
a polite notification’ ” (ibid.). 

This was not a battle royal—very far from it; nor does 


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SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 285 


it seem to have been surrounded with the dignity one 
expects from a great man! 

That greatest of all viceroys of New Spain, Don Antonio 
Bucareli y Ursua, wrote, on March 18, 1772, to Don Pedro 
Fages in Alta California: ‘‘ ‘I charge Your Honor very 
strictly to preserve harmony with the Missionary Fathers, 
and to let them freely perform their apostolic work... . 
Likewise I charge Your Honor that you do all that you 
easily can in order to keep the missionaries in the tran- 
quillity which they desire... .’” It had been well had 
Governor Don Felipe de Neve been given similar instruc- 
tions and had he committed them to memory, for there was 
little “tranquillity” for the friars, and, of harmony between 
Church and State, there was none during his incumbency. 

Don Felipe de Neve was saturated with prejudices! 


In January, 1777, a new government for Alta California 
went into effect. 

After the death of Don Julian de Arriaga in 1776, and 
the succession of Don José de Galvez as ministro de las 
Indias, a royal decree was issued, embodying a plan for 
the government of the Provincias Internas: Sonora, Sinaloa, 
Nueva Vizcaya (Chihuahua), New Mexico, the Californias, 
Coahuila, and Texas, joining them under a comandancia 
general—a general (military) command—with the capital 
at Arispe, Sonora. 

While independent, the comandancia was not to be cut off 
entirely from the viceroyalty: reports were to be made to 
the viceroy and his assistance might be asked. As to Alta 
California, the matter of supply boats from San Blas was 
left to the viceroy; but in all else, control was vested in 
the comandante general, to whom reports were to be made. 

This plan had been formulated by the visitador, Don 
José de Galvez, in 1768, because of the enormous distances 
from the capital, in some cases six hundred leagues; the 


286 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


inadequate means of communication, and the many dis- 
similar problems and interests of these outlying provinces— 
a good plan apparently, but entrusted, unfortunately, to the 
wrong person. 

It is usually incomprehensible to one of large vision that 
a plan, formulated to the veriest details, one of dozens 
originated by him, and sent forth to do its work, cannot 
be carried through by almost any one of ordinary intelli- 
gence. This is a common mistake and one made by Galvez 
in his appointee to the office of comandante general: Don 
Teodoro de Croix—a nephew of the former viceroy, the 
Marqués Carlos Francisco de Croix—an industrious, con- 
scientious man, doing well all to which he was accustomed 
but with no head for new things or complications. 

The comandancia had come into being officially only a 
little over a month prior to the arrival of the Governor of 
the Californias at the new capital. But, at that time, in 
that far-away land, it was not yet known that it had come 
into being at all. 

Under date of March 8, 1777, Croix informed Neve 
that the governor and officials in Alta California were, in 
the future, to report to him. Before that order had arrived 
at Monterey, many letters and reports of importance, sug- 
gestions and requests for instructions, requiring immediate 
attention, had been despatched by the governor to the 
viceroy. He had advised three more missions and a 
presidio on the Santa Barbara Channel, a stronger military 
force at San Francisco, Monterey, and San Diego; and had 
also proposed the founding of civilian settlements—pueblos. 
He should need more soldiers, fully equipped and with 


families; also sixty families, including artisans of various — 


kinds. He should need agricultural and other implements; 
and, also, certain domestic animals should be sent. 

At the end of July, the whole correspondence, with letters 
from Serra and Rivera, was sent by Bucareli to Croix, but 
the file was returned to Bucareli by Croix, who requested 


CF gl em a eae en ge a ae 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 287 


the viceroy to take charge for him of all matters therein 
requiring immediate attention, as he was preparing to leave 
Mexico City. 


Under the comandancia, it was now necessary to bring 
the Californias under the same system as the other 
provincias internas so that the same royal orders would be 
applicable to all. | 

The hurriedly prepared Echeveste reglamento of 1773 
did not long meet the needs of Alta California, and, in 
some respects, it was unsatisfactory from the first, having 
been adopted only as a temporary modus operandi, and 
was now worn out as a whole. And, in writing to Neve, 
under date of August 15, 1777, that, by a royal order of 
March 21, 1775, the Echeveste reglamento was to be 
remodeled, Croix said, ‘‘ ‘Lacking knowledge on the sub- 
ject, I need that you report to me at length and in detail 
what are the faults that impair the usefulness of the old 
regulation, and what you deem necessary for its reform, 
so that I may be enabled to decide when consulted about 
the country’”’; also, in substance, that his duties in other 
provinces would prevent his giving his attention to Cali- 
fornia affairs at that time, and that he had therefore turned 
over the whole matter of Neve’s request, et cetera, to the 
viceroy. (Drawn, and where quoted, from Bancroft.) 

This communication was received by Governor Neve in 
June of the following year, 1778. 


Bucareli’s reply to Croix, dated August 27, 1777, was 
all that kindliness and courtesy required, but the correspond- 
ence sent by Croix to Bucareli to be attended to by him 
was sent back, the viceroy writing that neither he nor Croix 
was empowered to change a royal order, and that, in these 
matters, he, as viceroy, no longer had jurisdiction; that they 
were of the very greatest importance and needed immediate 
attention; that, had he them in hand, he should do thus 


288 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


and so; and that among missions to be established should 
be those along the Gila and Colorado rivers—thus endeav- 
oring to give Croix all necessary information, and to counsel 
and guide him, without seeming to dictate. 

In a letter dated April 15, 1778, Governor Neve had 
reported the founding of the Pueblo of San Josée de 
Guadalupe on November 29, 1777; to which General Croix 
replied, on the 3d of the following September, approving. 
In the same month, he wrote two letters to Don José de 
Galvez, in one reporting the contents of the above letter, 
of which Galvez also approved later; in the other, he com- 
plained bitterly that Bucareli had not taken these California 
matters off his hands. He said that the deeper he went 
into them, the more ‘“‘confused’’ he became; that, while he 
had approved of Neve’s proposals, he would leave those 
matters in statu quo until after his arrival at Arispe, 
Sonora; that he had, however, asked Neve to look into the 
matter of a new reglamento, and, also, to send Rivera y 
Moncada to meet him at Arispe. To this, Galvez replied, 
advising him to take careful note of Rivera’s report to him. 

In a long report to Croix, dated December 28, 1778, 
Felipe de Neve set forth the provisions of the existing 
reglamento, and wherein his own recommendations dif- 
fered. This report passed, en route, a letter from Coman- 
dante General Croix, dated the 30th of the previous Sep- 
tember, asking him to draw up the reglamento. ‘To this 
Neve replied, on March 30, 1779, saying he would do so. 

The comandante general did not arrive at the capital 
in Sonora until the fall, November, of that year. Mean- 
while, many things were neglected. He had received very 
particular instructions as to Alta California, and was told 
to visit that province at the first possible opportunity; but 
the opportunity evidently never presented itself, for he 
never went, nor did he go even as far on the way as the 
Gila and Colorado, which he was also instructed to visit. 

By June 1 of the same year, 1779, the Neve reglamento 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 289 


was finished. In his remitting letter to General Croix, 
Governor Neve stated that he was putting the reglamento 
into effect at once, provisionally, subject to such changes as 
he, Croix, might deem expedient. Under date of September 
21 of the next year, 1780, Croix wrote Neve from Arispe 
that the reglamento was on its way to the king, and ordered 
that it was to go into effect on January 1, 1781, provision- 
ally, pending the king’s approval. As will have been noted, 
the reglamento was already in effect—“provisionally.”’ 

The celebrated reglamento of Don Felipe de Neve, for- 
warded to Don Teodoro de Croix at Arispe from the 
Royal Presidio of San Carlos of Monterey, practically 
reproduced the recommendations included in his report of 
December 28, 1778. So far as is known, it was accepted 
in its entirety; and in the royal orders approving it, October 
24, 1781, it was fully credited to Neve. 


XXIII 


There being no bishop, the rite of confirmation had not 
been administered to those who had been baptized by the 
Franciscans in Alta California. ‘Thus, the neophytes had 
not been drawn fully into the bosom of the Church. A 
possible remedy for this state of affairs appeared in a copy 
of a papal bull issued by Benedict XIV, which had been 
discovered by Fray Junipero Serra in Baja California. By 
it, one of the Jesuit missionaries there was, under similar 
existing conditions, empowered to administer the rite. 
That any bishop might visit Alta California, farther away 
and much more difficult to reach, was only a very remote 
possibility. ‘Therefore, Serra forwarded the treasure trove 
to the Guardian of the College of San Fernando, asking 
that, if possible, the same privilege be obtained from the 
pope for him or for one of the other padres. 

This petition was referred to Fray José Garcia, the 
comisario prefecto—commissary prefect—who forwarded 
it through the proper channels. On July 10, 1774, the 
facultad de confirmar—the faculty or right to confirm—was 
granted him, with authority to subdelegate the power for 
a period of ten years from the date of the concession, to 
One missionary from each of the four missionary colleges 
of New Spain: Santa Cruz de Querétaro, Guadalupe de 
Zacatecas, San Fernando de Mejico, and Guatemala. 

The papal brief had then to receive the sanction of the 
king and the Supreme Council of the Indies. The pasé 
—the royal permit in matters ecclesiastical—being duly 
afhxed, the document was sent on its way to Mexico, where 
it came before the Audiencia and was approved on Sep- 
tember 18, 1776, and on the 19th by Viceroy Bucareli. 


[ 290 ] 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 291 


But, in the meantime, Fray Garcia had died. 

Fray Juan Domingo Arricivita (author of the Cronica 
Serafica) became comisario prefecto, and on October 17 of 
the next year, 1777, subdelegated the facultad de confirmar 
to Padre Presidente Fray Junipero Serra of Alta California, 
as the one missionary from San Fernando. 

‘The document appointing him together with copies of 
the Papal Brief were brought to San Francisco by the 
Santiago | captain, Juan Manuel de Ayala; two pilots, Fran- 
cisco Castro and Juan Bautista de Aguirre; chaplain, José 
Nocedal] on June 17th, 1778, and thence transmitted to 
Fr. Serra at San Carlos” (Engelhardt). 


Of the period of ten years from the date of concession, 
four had elapsed, leaving but six in which Fray Junipero 
was authorized to administer the rite of confirmation. He, 
therefore, resolved to make use of his powers without 
delay. “In the Libro de las Confirmaciones, or Record of 
Confirmations, Fr. Serra takes particular pains to record 
that every formality was scrupulously observed and ‘exe- 
cuted in the church of this Mission of San Carlos de Mon- 
terey on the day of the Apostles Saints Peter and Paul, 
June 29th, 1778” (ibid.). On that one day, he confirmed 
ninety-one small children. ‘“Those over nine years were 
regarded as adults” (ibid., note). 

On August 24, the padre presidente sailed on board the 
Santiago for San Diego. He tells us about it in a note 
in his Libro de las Confirmaciones, following a list of one 
hundred and fifty names of those confirmed up to August 23: 
“The said frigate (Santiago) in those days being ready 
to set out from the Port of Monterey, and the captain 
notifying me that he intended to make the Port of San 
Diego on this same coast for a short stop, I. . . thought 
and determined to suspend confirming at this mission, and 
to embark on said vessel in order to go to San Diego Mis- 
sion, and thence afterwards by land to travel to the others 


292 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


back to this one, bestowing everywhere the blessing of the 
administration of this holy Sacrament upon the faithful who 
had not received it. On the following day, the 24th of the 
present month of August, . . . I embarked for the love 
of God. The voyage for the lack of wind was a long one; 
but without other mishap, thanks be to God, the ship 
anchored in said Port of San Diego on the 15th of the 
following September, and on the next day I disembarked 
and went to the mission. Again thanks be to God!’” 
(ibid.). 

At San Diego, upward of six hundred persons were con- 
firmed. On his way back to Monterey, he confirmed: at 
San Juan Capistrano, one hundred and forty-seven; at San 
Gabriel, three hundred and sixty-two; at San Luis Obispo, 
two hundred and sixty-five; and at San Antonio, three hun- 
dred and thirty-two. 

At the end of December, he was again at Mission San 
Carlos, with eighteen hundred and ninety-seven names of 
those confirmed in his Libro. During the summer of 1779, 
one hundred and ten were added at San Carlos. “Two 
thousand four hundred and thirty-two persons in all received 
the rite in 1778-9, about one hundred of the number being 
gente de razon’ (Bancroft). 


So far, all is clear; but from that on, one faces an 
impasse of whys and wherefores, and is finally routed 
through sheer bewilderment. 

Just when the inevitable happened does not appear, but, 
at all events, trouble—and serious trouble—arose between 
the governor and the padre presidente. 

Reducing the whole matter to the simplest terms, Neve 
requested Serra to submit to him his documentary authority 
to administer confirmation. According to Bancroft, Serra 
refused. According to Engelhardt, “Fr. Serra explained 
that the original Brief of the Pope was in the archives of 
the Most Rev. Comisario Prefecto, and that the only doc- 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 293 


ument needed for himself [Serra] was the paper, signed, 
sealed and countersigned by the secretary, by which the 
Fr. Comisario designated and appointed him to exercise 
the faculty as directed by the Pope.” 

Of course, it was clearly and entirely within the right 
of Governor Neve to demand that the patente be sub- 
mitted to him for inspection, as a mere matter of official 
routine, as he was inspecting everything in Alta California. 
What possible personal difference could it have made to 
him whether the padre presidente did or did not administer 
confirmation? But, officially, that was a different matter, 
and, because of the complexity of the Spanish union of 
Church and State, it might have been obligatory—to an 
official who was, at the same time, Felipe de Neve! The 
governor seems to have been a stickler in these things. 

We sometimes read that Neve ordered Serra to dis- 
continue administering confirmation, but that, despite the 
governor's orders, the padre presidente continued. May- 
hap he did not so order, but merely exhorted, admonished, 
warned, or cautioned him not to continue until instructions 
should come from the comandante general (broadly, from 
the comandancia): “ ‘le exhortaba no pasase a confirmar 
hasta que viniese respuesta de la comandancia’’”’ (Engel- 
hardt, note, from Palou) may be so construed. At all 
events, Governor Neve made no effort to enforce the order; 
and, as will be seen, Serra did, as a matter of fact, admin- 
ister the rite during the interdicted period, but only to a 
limited extent. 

On October 30, Serra forwarded such documents as he 
had to the Guardian of the College of San Fernando. He 
also “petitioned De Croix for permission to continue 
administering Confirmation. All these letters were sent 
by the Princesa which sailed from San Francisco Bay on 
October 30th, 1779” (ibid.). On December 17, Fray 
Raphael Verger presented all the papers to the viceroy, 
asking for official duplicates. 


294 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


As the Californias were under the comandancia, Neve 
referred the matter to Croix, his contention being that the 
pasé of the comandante general had not been afhxed. 
Croix consulted his legal adviser—asesor—Don Pedro 
Galindo Navarro. The king being patron—patrono—of 
the Church in his dominions, the viceroy, as his representa- 
tive, was vice patron; and, taking the position that Croix 
was equally so, the asesor, on April 17, 1780, replied that 
‘the governor could proceed to collect the said documents” 
(ibid.). 

In accordance with this, on the 20th, Croix sent ‘an 
order to Neve to take possession of the original patent and 
instructions which . . . must still be in possession of the 
latter [Serra]; and, furthermore, under no pretext what: 
ever to permit the president to go on administering the 
sacrament till new orders should be given. The papers 
were to be sent at once to Croix, who would communicate 
with the viceroy . . . and would settle the matter as soon 
as possible’ (Bancroft). 

Neve’s answer to this, although it is dated March 26 of 
the following year, 1781, may as well be given here. He 
writes in part, “ ‘Fr. Junipero Serra says he sent his 
patente, etc., to the Fr. Guardian. I do not proceed to 
take possession and search the papers, because, it not being 
certain that he sent them away, he will with his unspeakable 
artifice and shrewdness have hidthem... . At amore 
opportune time certain measures may be taken... in 
order to bring this Fr. Presidente to a proper acknowledg- 
ment of the authority which he eludes while he pretends to 
obey’ (Engelhardt). (Bancroft, note, in substance.) 
That Neve did not relish the idea of being the “‘cat’s paw” 
to “take the chestnuts out of the fire” (if there were any 
to take) is evident; and, also, his reply shows his bitter 
feeling toward the fray presidente. 

On April 20, 1780, the same date as Croix’s letter to 
Neve to which the above is the answer, Croix wrote also 


F 
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: 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 295 


to Serra, sending the written opinion of the asesor, “with 
the order that the Fr. Presidente should give this resolu- 
tion his punctual obedience by delivering the original docu- 
ments to the governor” (ibid.) ; Bancroft says: “‘ ‘charging 
and entreating’ him to obey the order punctually by giving 
up the papers.” On July 20, Serra replied that he had 
already transmitted the papers to his college, so that they 
might be put into the form demanded by the governor. 

On October 6, the original patente and certified copies 
of all documents arrived and, also, a letter from Guardian 
Verger, dated February 15, 1780, saying that duplicates 
of everything had been forwarded to Comandante General 
Croix. 

Now, the “whys and wherefores”’ become very insistent, 
indeed. At that time, Governor Neve, for whom the docu- 
ments were intended, was in Baja California. Without 
waiting for his return, Serra bundled them up and sent 
them back by the same vessel that had brought them, to 
be forwarded to General Croix, to whom, Verger had 
stated in his letter to Serra arriving by the same boat as 
these papers, duplicates had already been sent! 

Upon Neve’s return came the, no doubt, expected 
demand. To Serra, Neve wrote: ‘‘ ‘As I have soon to send 
despatches to the comandante-general, and the transmission 
is still pending of the Original Patente . . . and also of 
the Practical Instruction which accompanies it, . . . which 
documents Your Reverence has postponed to deliver to 
me in order that you might add others . . . I ask you to 
remit one andall. .. . The ship has arrived, I therefore 
supplicate Your Reverence to be pleased to remit said 
papers in order that I may pass them on to His Honor and 
thus comply with his instructions’”’ (Engelhardt). Ban- 
croft says: ‘Serra did not deign to say whether he had the ~ 
papers or not, but coolly replied on the same date by say- 
ing in substance: “The whole matter has been settled by 
higher authorities; the papers proved to be all right; I 


296 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


have written to General Croix, and he will doubtless be 
satisfied with what I have said. You and I have only to. 
wait for orders.’’’ Ever reaching out toward the tem- 
poralities, Serra was impatient at any suggestion as to the 
spiritualities. 

Serra’s letter, replying to Croix’s to him of the same date 
as Croix’s letter to Neve, April 20, 1780, was, in turn, 
replied to by Croix, disregarding absolutely Serra’s asser- 
tion that the documents demanded were not in his posses- 
sion, in part, as follows: “‘ ‘Notwithstanding all that Your 
Reverence states in the letter of June [sic] 20th last, I 
repeat to Your Reverence that you immediately comply with 
what I told you by way of request and command in the 
order of April 20th previous: that Your Reverence should 
surrender the Patente and the Original Instructions . . . 
to the governor ...’” (Engelhardt). 

Meantime, the papers had come and gone! 

To this, Serra made answer in a lengthy epistle, dated 
March 23, 1781, in which he says, “ ‘J swear upon the 
word and honor of a priest [‘‘Yo juro in Verbo Sacerdotis 
y tacto pectore Sacerdotali” (note) ], that I am not in pos- 
session of the original patent . . . ’” (ibid.). 


In the meantime, it had been settled; but it was some 
time after December 24, 1780, the date of the letter from 
Croix, giving permission to Serra to continue administering 
confirmation, that the letter was received by the padre 
presidente together with one from Governor Neve, dated 
San Gabriel, May 19, 1781, both received on August 16, 
at San Carlos, Carmelo. Croix’s letter reads: “‘ ‘Having 
been assured by the testimony which His Excellency, the 
viceroy, has sent to me, that the Brief, which empowers 
Your Reverence to administer the Sacrament of Confirma- 
tion in those missions, has the pase of the Supreme Council 
of the Indies and that of the captain-general [the viceroy | 
of Mexico, I to-day instruct Governor Felipe de Neve not 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 297 


to prevent Your Reverence from using said faculty, and 
that for its exercise he furnish Your Reverence with the 
escort which you ask of him and which you need’ ’”’ (Engel- 
hardt). Governor Neve, also, “informed Serra . . . that 
there was no longer any obstacle to his administering the 
sacrament” (Bancroft). 


The foregoing, long as it is, is the merest digest of this 
many-sided controversy, but quite sufficient for these pages 
and made with infinite care. That it was a matter of 
importance to the participants is shown in the acrimony 
displayed in the correspondence. It is not possible to draw 
conclusions. 

The ‘whys and wherefores’’ remain unanswered— 
threads in the fabric of the Californias, without which the 
weave would be neither so colorful nor what it is. 

The episode is fully set forth by Bancroft, beginning 
with p. 319, Vol. I, History of California; it is also set 
forth, at length, by Fray Zephyrin Engelhardt, in his 
Missions and Missionaries of California, Vol. II, pp. 
296-318, both liberally drawn upon here ;—practically the 
same story, told by each in his own way. 


Besides the important documents for the padre presi- 
dente which had arrived by the transport, and news that 
two frigates were being outfitted for exploration on the 
northwest coast, a report received, that, by order of the 
king, and sanctioned by the pope, the missions of the Cali- 
fornias were to become custodias, was not greeted by the 
padres with the ringing of joy bells. 

It is not necessary to probe the subject, as custodias were 
never established in the Californias—only threatened. But 
it is necessary to know, even though the recital at this point 
throws later events out of chronological order, how so dis- 
turbing an element was introduced and wherein the pro- 


298 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


posed custodias differed in plan from the already estab- 
lished missions, in order to understand references to them 
in other connections and the effect of the report brought 
by the Santiago upon the missionaries in Alta California. 

In 1776, Padre Antonio de los Reyes had advocated the 
custodia plan, although his college, Santa Cruz de Queré- 
taro, was strongly in favor of the mission system. 

Returning, after a sojourn in Spain, the king’s nominee 
for Bishop of Sonora, approved by the pope, with nineteen 
friars for his new diocese in his train, Reyes was consecrated 
at Tacubaya, on September 15, 1782. 

‘In support of his plan of the Custodia,—a plan the 
complement (ecclesiastically) of the Intendencia system of 
secular control,—Reyes was successful [while in Spain] in 
marshaling a powerful junta, headed by the Franciscan 
comisario-general of the Indies, Manuel de la Vega. The 
conclusive argument for the plan was the great distance 
between missions and their colleges or provincials, and the 
varying sets of rules governing missions” (Richman, note). 

Reyes had secured a royal decree, dated May 20, 1782, 
and a papal bull—material evidences of his success— 
empowering him to establish the Custodia of San Carlos 
in Sonora, and another at San Gabriel for the Californias. 
But no hint that these were in his possession seems to have 
escaped the bishop until such time—after his consecration 
—as he saw fit to disclose the fact. 

The plan for custodias, as promulgated, is, in outline, 
as follows: The provincias were to be divided into custodia 
districts; in the important towns in each district, a hospicio 
was to be established, in which were to dwell six or more 
padres, one being director and responsible to the comisario 
general. These padres were to go forth as missionaries, 
journeying to the mining camps, to the smaller pueblos, and 
from rancheria to rancheria, and were, with some govern- 
mental assistance, to depend, as did the Franciscans of old, 
upon the piously inclined for support. 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 299 


The plan was not new, and in the very early days of 
New Spain, had been successful. But the Reyes project 
was beset with opposition. His college, as well as San 
Fernando and Guadalupe de Zacatecas, filed vigorous pro- 
tests, while “this own brethren of Querétaro openly charged 
the bishop with having misrepresented the situation in 
Sonora, and with having obtained the Bull surreptitiously”’ 
(Engelhardt). However, on October 23, 1783, Bishop 
Reyes, as apostolic delegate, formally organized the Cus- 
todia of San Carlos. 

The Custodia of San Gabriel did not materialize, the 
idea being abandoned by the bishop. The Custodia of 
San Carlos, never a success, was dissolved by royal decree 
within the decade. 

As to the complementary intendencia plan: that was not 
put in operation until, by order of September 4, 1786, 
intendentes were appointed for various places—but none 
for the Californias. 


In February, 1779, the expedition reported by the 
Santiago as preparing, consisting of two vessels, com- 
manded by Lieutenant Ignacio Arteaga on the Princesa, 
with the second vessel, the Favorita, under command of 
Lieutenant Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Cuadra, set sail 
from San Blas, under royal orders, for exploration on the 
far northwest coast. 


On April 9, of the same year, the viceroy, Don Antonio 
Maria Bucareli y Ursta, passed away. 

No surer guiding hand was possible than had been that 
of this great executive, in whom were combined ability of 
a very high order and honor second to none. With Truth, 
which he was ever seeking, before him, his course was 
straight “with neither variableness nor shadow of turn. 
ing.” 


While he lived, he was appreciated by his king and the 


300 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


people; and, in the annals of New Spain, his name stands 
out clean and untarnished. 

By order of the king, no residencia was taken; in other 
words, the usual examination into an official’s acts during 
incumbency was omitted. 

He was buried in the church of Nuestra Senora de 
Guadalupe at Guadalupe-Hidalgo. 


In June, 1779, on the 26th, the Santiago—captain, 
Estévan Martinez; pilot, José Noboa—arrived at San 
Francisco. The chaplain on board was the Reverend Nico- 
las Loera, of the diocese of Guadalajara, the first secular 
priest to undertake the voyage to Alta California. Padre 
Fray José Nocedal, chaplain on board the year before, 
1778, had died a few days after the vessel reached San 
Blas. 

In the middle of September, the Arteaga expedition 
anchored in San Francisco Bay, having reached latitude 
60°, but having failed to find either English or Russians in 
possession, although, at that time, there were some of the 
latter in a little settlement on Kadiak Island. ‘These ves- 
sels remained in port six weeks, because of scurvy among 
the men. 

Lieutenant Bodega presented to the church at Dolores 
a bronze image of Nuestra Senora de los Remedios (one 
of the names of his vessel, the Favorita), a copy of one 
very famous in Mexico, that he had brought expressly for 
the purpose. It was placed on the altar with fitting cere- 
monies, but the padre presidente could not be present— 
this being during the “‘interdicted period” and when he was 
not allowed an escort. Later, however, early in October, 
he did make the journey, walking the whole way; and, at 
Santa Clara, met some of the officers of the expedition and 
journeyed with them to San Francisco, where he adminis- 
tered the rite of confirmation, as he did also at Mission 
Santa Clara, a month later, on his way back to Monterey. 


| 
| 
. 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 301 


Thereafter, according to Palou, he “refrained from giving 
Confirmation, lest he be also forbidden to baptize.” 

During this time, a courier arrived, announcing the 
death of the viceroy, and, also, war with England. This 
last news hastened the departure of the Princesa and the 
Favorita, which sailed on October 30. 

That autumn, the San Carlos and the San Antonio were 
despatched to Manila to carry the news, to give notice of 
danger, and to take three hundred thousand pesos in money. 
Padre Pedro Font was detailed as chaplain. 

On October 11, 1779, the San José, under José Imparan, 
arrived off Monterey. This was the first Manila galleon 
to touch at the port of call—and that was all she did. A 
boat was sent ashore by the commander, to notify the 
officials that he was acting under royal orders and was to 
take on food and water. He requested that a pilot be 
sent and that buoys marking deep water be placed. At 
Carmelo Bay, a sheep and vegetables were procured, while 
the officers crossed the peninsula to the presidio. ‘There, 
more meat was furnished them and the storehouse key 
tendered. A soldier who knew the harbor was detailed 
to act as pilot. After pulling up alongside the vessel, and 
just as the men had gone on board, the boat capsized, fol- 
lowed by a sudden gale, coming up from nowhere, which 
drove the San José out of the harbor; and the soldier-pilot, 
being on board, made an unexpected trip to Cape San 
Lucas, where he was landed! 

The wheels of state ground slowly in those days, as well 
as the mills of God—always; and we read of this matter 
again. In February, 1782, Don José de Galvez writes 
“, .. that though signal fires were lit at Monterey the 
galleon paid no attention, sailing for Cape San Licas in 
defiance of royal orders; that the king is much displeased; 
and that in future galleons must call at Monterey under a 
penalty of four thousand dollars, unless prevented by con- 
trary winds (Bancroft). It seems to have been a very 


302 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


contrary wind that swept the San José, soldier-pilot and 
all, out of the harbor of Monterey. 


At the end of the first ten years after the occupation of 
Alta California, with the capital of the Californias at Mon- 
terey, three presidios, eight missions, and a pueblo had been 
established. With the governor, two lieutenants, three 
sergeants, fourteen corporals, and about one hundred and 
forty soldiers; sixteen friars; a surgeon; three storekeepers 
and five master mechanics; some twenty settlers; thirty 
sirvientes, not servants—artisans, useful men of all sorts, 
even vaqueros—the gente de razon—Spanish and mixed 
blood—numbered close to five hundred. Upkeep, annual 
expenses, had increased and ran up to something like ten 
thousand pesos more than the fifty thousand appropriated 
under the Echeveste reglamento. In 1780, farming at the 
pueblo, San José, began to be successful; and, in the same 
year, the new adobe church at San Diego was completed. 


An antidote to the bitterness of much of the preceding 
is a little story, which may quite properly be told here. 

Fray Benito Cambon, ill and suffering, had been given 
leave to return to Mexico. Fray Matias Antonio de Santa 
Catarina y Noriega, who was chaplain of the Arteaga expe- 
dition, agreed to remain in his stead with Padre Palou, 
at Dolores, thus allowing Fray Benito to serve as chaplain 
on the return voyage to San Blas. And that is the way it 
came about that Padre Cambon returned to Mexico with 
the Arteaga expedition. 

When he reached Mexico, he was more ill than when 
he began the journey, but his heart yearned for California. 
Growing better, he determined to return on the Santiago. 
With his earnings as chaplain, he bought a supply of maize 
and sugar, which he intended to take back as a gift to the 
mission at Dolores. 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 303 


Captain Bruno de Heceta, on the Princesa, was ordered 
to Manila at that time, and Cambon was detailed to accom- 
pany him. So the maize and sugar, bought with all the 
money Fray Benito had in the world, went without him, 
a loving message to those in his heart and mind. 

When the Santiago— Captain Estévan Martinez — 
arrived at Monterey, which was not until the next October, 
1780, the cargo was unloaded there, San Francisco goods 
and the precious maize and sugar with the rest. But they 
did eventually reach their destination, for, later, they were 
sent up by pack train. 

In 1781, no supply boats arrived. The Santiago, upon 
her return to San Blas, was sent to Lima for quicksilver, 
none being procurable from Spain because of the war; and 
San Francisco had no supplies for more than a year. 


Cambon went to Manila. The Governor of the Philip- 
pines not only paid him what was due him but for several 
months in addition. Again, his heart went out to those 
in far-away California, and again he spent his pay as 
chaplain for his mission, San Francisco de Asis at Dolores. 
He purchased vestments, wax to make candles for the 
altar, and other things for the church, until he had no 
money left with which to buy anything more. 

On his return to his beloved California, Padre Cambon 
acted as chaplain on board the San Carlos de las Filipinas 
—Captain Juan Gonzalez—a new San Carlos, built at 
Manila to take the place of the unlucky transport, San 
Carlos, that had done duty along the coast for so many 
years. 

All—the San Carlos, Padre Cambon and his purchases— 
arrived safely at San Diego, this time the port of call, on 
December 9, 1781, where he was released as chaplain on 
board, an Augustinian friar, a passenger, agreeing to serve 
in that capacity on the voyage to San Blas. 

But, at San Diego, it was discovered that Fray Benito’s 


304 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


packages were billed through to San Blas! ‘They went 
—but they came back again, arriving on the transport on 
May 13, 1782, none the worse for the additional “round 
trip.” 


The story of the padre’s purchases is a refreshing oasis 
in a desert of worry—yes, and of heartbreak, too, for 
Serra’s heart did break under the Neve régime! 


XXIV 


Promises made by the Spaniards to Salvador Palma, the 
Yuma chief, were long in fulfillment. 

Anza and Garcés had urged that if the overland route 
was to be kept open and of any use, it could be done only 
by preserving the friendly relations already established with 
the Yuma Indians—eager at that time for the Spaniards 
to come among them bringing missionaries and founding 
missions and settlements—emphasizing that without their 
cooperation, the crossing of the Colorado River could not 
possibly be managed. 

After the change in government on January I, 1777, 
these Gila-Colorado affairs were no longer under the juris- 
diction of the viceroy, whose plans for missions and settle- 
ments, including the moving of the presidios of Horcasitas 
and Buenavista, were already outlined, but were under the 
jurisdiction of the comandante general. Full information 
was furnished him and he was carefully advised in these 
matters, but—Croix lacked comprehension—their impor- 
tance seems never to have been brought home to him. By 
July, 1777, he had made up his mind that the expensive 
Bucareli plan was unnecessary. Furthermore, action in 
these matters was postponed by him until he should be 
at Arispe, and, for a time, at least, so far as he was con- 
cerned, they were wiped off the slate of the comandancia. 
Dismissed, they may, also, have been well-nigh forgotten. 

But Palma, had not forgotten and had gone twice to 
Altar and once to Horcasitas to ask the reason for such 
delay and to plead that the matter be hastened. Each time 
he had gone back to the Yumas with fresh assurances of 
the coming of the missionaries. He had relied implicitly 


[ 305 ] 


306 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


on what he had been told in Mexico, and, in his turn, had 
made promises to his people, who hung upon his word. 
But when many moons had waxed and waned, and still no 
missionaries came, there was “none so poor to do him 
reverence.” Palma had lost caste. 

On February 3, 1779, after one of his pathetic little 
visits to the Presidio of Altar, where he had been “made 
much of,” Croix was informed of Palma’s predicament. 
This communication must have held for him some special 
appeal. Palma’s petitions were, by this time, not new to 
Croix, and now, at last, they were to bear fruit (apples 
of the Dead Sea). For, although he had not yet reached 
Arispe, Croix, later in the same month, wrote to the College 
of Santa Cruz that he was ready to proceed with these 
matters and authorized the sending of two missionaries to 
the junction. 

Garcés was to be one of the missionaries and, as to 
details, with which Croix seems to have had nothing to do, 
made many suggestions, most of which, such, at least, as 
now appear, were adopted, but how far they were actually 
carried out is another matter. As little money—the least 
possible that could sufice—was available, economy along ~ 
all lines was urged. Although Garcés was a Franciscan, — 
and as a Franciscan taking for himself no thought of the — 
morrow, it is impossible to feel that, with his experience — 
for a guide, he made no protest, unless—Palma’s life being — 
in danger because of the nonappearance of the missionaries — 
—his sense of duty, in the urgent need that the expedition — 
be sent without delay, dominated all else; or that he under- — 
stood this to be a first-aid emergency stop-gap to be fol- — 
lowed at once by something adequate to all needs, which — 
Croix had in mind. But if he simply held his peace for no — 
great controlling reason, taking meekly what he could get — 
—then the good padre was indeed improvident and lacked 
foresight. 

Twelve soldiers were detailed. Garcés thought it would 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 307 


be advisable to have their families with them, hoping to 
steady them and to put a stop to their too ardent and, 
also, undesired attentions to the Indian women. But a 
Sonora official thought otherwise, and, the obverse pre- 
senting itself, he frowned upon the idea, fearing the Indian 
braves might covet the soldiers’ wives! 

Diaz, the other missionary, who, with Garces, had been 
with Anza breaking a way overland into Alta California, 
was furnished two thousand pesos with which to outfit the 
expedition. But, with all that must be purchased—every- 
thing from mules to trinkets for the Indians along the road 
—the money did not last long, and, on July 8, when he 
turned in his account to Governor Don Pedro Corbalan, 
not a real remained. 

After preparations were well under way, Croix seems 
to have had some misgivings as to the wisdom of the idea 
or the way in which it was being carried out, for, in May, 
something prompted him to issue orders to hold back 
everything in connection. ‘These, for some reason, were not 
received in Sonora until after the meagerly—one dares to 
say penuriously—equipped little expedition had been sent 
on its way in August, through Papagueria to the junction. 

That year there had been but little rain. In consequence, 
hardships and the usual difficulties of a journey through 
that arid land were increased. ‘The expedition, as originally 
despatched, got no farther than Sonoita. From there, 
Garcés, with only two soldiers, went on, arriving at his 
destination with provisions about gone and, so far as gifts 
for the Indians were concerned, empty-handed. 

On September 2, not long after arrival, he wrote to Croix 
in regard to conditions as he found them. On the same 
day, he wrote to Don Pedro Corbalan, who had promised 
Croix to assist the padre, asking for a grant of three hun- 
dred pesos, saying that gifts for the Indians must be forth- 
coming and interpreters paid, and that without what he 


asked he would be helpless! 


308 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


On the 3d, his messengers, the two soldiers who had 
accompanied him from Sonoita, departed with the letters, 
and he was left alone among the Indians. During the 
month that followed, the padre had ample time for reflec- 
tion and to arrive at the psychology of the situation. 
Palma was as cordial as of old. But Garcés now realized 
only too well that Palma had no authority actually vested 
in him as head of a tribal group; that, in fact, he was only 
one among many petty chiefs; and that his own prestige 
among the Indians hung by the slender thread of Palma’s 
weakened personal influence. 

Among the Yumas, the whole atmosphere had changed. 

Padre Garcés, bearing no gifts, had arrived in but humble 
fashion, and respect for him and for a people who could 
send him to them in so niggardly a way, diminished. Like 
the ever widening circles from a pebble dropped into a pool, 
this disaffection was spreading to the neighboring tribes, 
the Cajuenches, Jalchedunes, and others. They, too, had 
been waiting impatiently for missionaries. The thought of 
being made Christians had been very enticing, including, 
as it did, according to their lights, food and raiment ;—and 
it meant the same thing to the Yumas as to their neighbors. 
With nothing at his command and nothing in immediate 
prospect, the padre had no way to meet these expectations. 
The outlook was not encouraging. 


On October 2, Diaz put in an appearance with the other 
soldiers, who, at Sonoita, had been on the point of desert- 
ing, dismayed by what lay before them. Diaz sent to Altar 
for aid, and received advice—which he did not follow. He 


was urged to abandon the whole thing. But it is not to — 


be imagined that anything short of death could have pre- 


vented the padre from following his colleague, and, in — 
some way, he prevailed upon the soldiers to continue with — 


him. 


> Se ee ee ae Se a -_ 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 309 


The same difficulties which had confronted one at the 
junction, now confronted two. The padres were encircled 
with perplexing conditions. The Indians were restless. 
The various tribes were not at war with one another but, 
decidedly, were not obsessed by a desire for peace. The 
warpath was now far more alluring to them than was the 
Spanish road to the “happy hunting ground.” The padres 
had nothing with which to attract or hold them. 

The two were eking out a miserable existence at Palma’s 
rancheria, and what might have been easily accomplished 
with properly organized missions, backed by a presidio 
and soldiers, was, in their unhappy position, an impossible 
task. Nothing was being done. 


On September 30, Don Pedro Corbalan had forwarded 
to the comandante general the Diaz account, rendered on 
July 8, and the Garcés letter of September 2, asking for 
a grant of three hundred pesos. 

This request, Governor Corbalan had refused. 


In November, Garcés wrote direct to Croix, urging a 
second mission and settlements, troops and further financial 
aid. 

Missionary work was in a state of partial paralysis. 
And, after consulting and finding no other way open to 
them, Diaz set out for Arispe to explain their wretched 
position to the comandante general. Yet, in a letter to 
Croix, dated December 27 of that year, 1779, Padre Fray 
Francisco Garcés, the undauntable, nevertheless ‘“‘rejoiced” 
that the order issued by General Croix, suspending the Gila- 
Colorado project, had not overtaken him! 

In this connection, the word ‘‘motivation,” now in such 
active use, comes insistently to mind: Was this merely a 
burst of religious enthusiasm? Was it a bit of Spanish 
bravado, which had survived the donning of the cassock? 


’ 


310 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


Or was the friar, figuratively, “making faces” at the 
official? 


After leaving Mexico in August, 1777, making a tour 
of inspection by way of Querétaro and Durango to Coahuila 
and Texas, General Croix reached Chihuahua in March, 
1778, remaining there or thereabouts until the fall of the 
following year. In November of that year, 1779, he 
arrived at Arispe, Sonora, the capital of the comandancia, 
there to take up his official residence. 


At the end of 1779, Lieutenant Governor Rivera y Mon- 
cada was ordered by Governor Neve to cross the gulf from 
Loreto and to report to Comandante General Croix at 
Arispe, in the matter of soldiers and settlers for the pro- 
posed Presidio of Santa Barbara, the Channel missions and 
a pueblo to be located on the Rio Porciuncula (mentioned 
specifically in the new reglamento). Rivera, who was to 
have entire charge of the recruiting, duly presented him- 
self; and on February 10, 1780, Croix wrote to Neve that 
Rivera had received instructions, a copy of which he 
enclosed, and was already carrying out orders. 


On the 12th, two days after the date of the above letter, 
Padre Juan Diaz arrived at the capital to lay the Gila- 
Colorado situation before the comandante general. The 
two went into consultation and, five days later, Croix issued 
a decree providing for two settlements. Colonists with 
their families and soldiers with theirs were to be divided 
between the two, thus drawing into the scheme of things 
the presidio idea without the expense of presidios as such. 
There were to be two missionaries, as usual, at each place, 
who, while attending to their duties among the Indians, 
could, also, act as priests—curates—for the settlements. 
The plan, a combination affair, a flimsy substitute for sub- 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 311 


stantial presidios, missions, and settlements, is usually 
credited to Diaz. However that may be the plan, on its 
face, was one that, in its economy, would, most certainly, 
strongly appeal to Croix. It would save money and do just 
as well! 

There was to be an allotment of land among the settlers, 
and the Yumas were to be included. Diaz was invited to 
make suggestions, and, in a document dated February 19, 
pointed out that those among the Yumas who desired to do 
so, could, without delay, come in under the settlement plan, 
as not only did they understand the rotation and manage- 
ment of crops but were entirely conversant with the indi- 
vidual ownership of land. But the asesor, Galindo Navarro, 
had something to say to this, his opinion being that “It 
would be against law and equity to dispossess the Indians 
of lands actually occupied by them . . .; therefore, matters 
had best be left as they were, as concerned the division of 
lands among them, until the Spaniards should become better 
informed” (Chapman), and in March a final decree, modi- 
fied in accordance with the report of the asesor, was issued. 

Garcés, upon hearing of the new plan, sent many pro- 
tests, but in vain. 

Croix wrote Galvez, setting forth, at length, the many 
advantages possessed by his plan over that in contempla- 
tion by Bucareli at the time jurisdiction in the matter was 
transferred to him. 

It is doubtful if Croix was, except in a perfunctory way, 
really at all interested in these matters. His interest is 
supposed to have centered in Sonora and in frontier affairs 
generally, in so far as the framing, in regard to them, of 
tremendously long memorials, and—it is safe to say—more 
in that than in what they stood for. 


In 1780, some time in the fall, the two colonies—pueblo- 
missions—were founded: La Purisima Concepcion (Fort 


312 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


Yuma) near the junction, and about eight leagues farther 
down the Colorado, San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuner, 
both on the western or California side. 

The Indians were not impressed. Few converts were 
made and they often apostasized. They could see nothing 
to their advantage in having these Spaniards there, tram- 
pling their rights under foot,—while their live stock 
trampled their crops. They were not as Palma had depicted 
them. 

After a time, Palma, himself, began to waver. 

Nor could the padres see much semblance to missions in 
what had been established there. 

A young friar, Juan Barreneche, had joined Padre Garcés 
at Concepcion, while the two frailes at Bicuner were Juan 
Diaz and Matias Moreno. All were in the depths of dis- 
couragement. 

Food became very scarce; and the Yumas either inso- 
lently refused to sell their surplus to the Spaniards except 
at prohibitive prices, or refused to sell at all. 

In June, soldiers were sent to San Gabriel to ask for 
assistance and to inform them there that unless it could 
be had, the missions on the Colorado would have to be 
abandoned. ‘They were given clothing and some money 
with which to purchase cattle and provisions, and returned 
well supplied with what they had been sent to obtain. The 
Franciscans accepted the clothing because their Indians were 
in need of it, but refused the money. 


‘Even the worm will turn being trodden on,” and at 
last Palma, who had been faithful so long and against such © 
odds, joined the ranks of those inciting retaliation against — 
the little group of Spaniards. | 


Rivera y Moncada, who had been recruiting for the — 
Santa Barbara Channel establishments and the pueblo to — 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 313 


be founded on the Rio Porciuncula, divided his expedition 
into two sections and despatched the first, under command 
of Lieutenant Don José de Zuniga, by way of Guaymas 
across the gulf to Loreto. Several plans had been proposed, 
with this result. 

From Loreto, the party reémbarked on March 12 for 
San Luis Bay, where they arrived on April 24. There were 
seventeen soldier-colonists with this group, the rest being 
simply colonists, artisans, and laborers with their families. 
It seems to have been an arduous task, for many months 
had been given to this recruiting and yet the full quota 
which had been decided upon had not been collected. From 
San Luis Bay, this division proceeded up the Peninsula to 
San Diego, and from there to the rendezvous of the expedi- 
tion, San Gabriel, where Captain Rivera was to meet them. 


The division, commanded by Rivera himself, marched 
from Alamos, Sonora, some time in April. There were 
forty-two soldiers, thirty of them having their families 
with them, but there seem to have been no settlers proper. 
From Tucson, as far as the Gila and Colorado rivers, a 
company of soldiers, under Alférez Andrés Arias Caballero, 
acted as escort. An enormous herd of horses and mules— 
nearly a thousand head—was convoyed by this division. 

From the junction, Sergeant Juan José Robles, who, with 
six soldiers, had been sent from Monterey by Governor 
Neve to meet the expedition, was to act as escort to San 


Gabriel. 


No entente cordiale was brought about with the Yumas 
by the arrival, in June, of Rivera, with his horses and mules 
and his soldier-colonists and their families, repeating all 
they had been enduring from the settlers at the pueblo- 
missions. | 

Whether General Croix had again been economical, 
whether they had been overlooked, or whether the lieuten- 


314 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


ant governor, incensed at the surliness of the Indians, had, 
himself, withheld them, few gifts had been forthcoming 
and there was an undercurrent of dissatisfaction on this 
account, not confined to the Yumas. Their neighbors, the 
Jalchedunes, sent word openly to Rivera that, as they had 
received no gifts, they did not wish to retain badges of 
office given their chiefs by the Spaniards in the past. 

Lieutenant Santiago de Islas, in command of the pueblo- 
mission group, added to the general resentment by setting 
up a whipping post and flogging some of the Yumas for 
thieving, and by putting Ignacio, Palma’s brother, into the 
stocks. 


Because of the exhausted condition of many of the ani- 
mals after their long journey, it became necessary to change 
the original plan somewhat. Rivera again broke the expe- 
dition into two sections, sending on all the married soldiers 
and their families, and such of the stock as could continue, 
under escort of Alférez Cayetano Limon, who, with his 
nine regulars, was later to return to Sonora. With this 
division were Lieutenant Diego Gonzalez and Alférez José 
Dario Argiiello. On July 14, they arrived at San Gabriel, 
before the division under Lieutenant Zuniga up the Penin- 
sula, which did not reach there until August 18. 


Keeping Sergeant Robles with him, Rivera remained and, 
recrossing the Colorado, went into camp. 

Now began, on the east bank, the same devastating 
process; and everything was grazed off—even the mesquite. 
It was evident to the Indians that soon nothing on either 
side of the river would be left. 

One thing followed another, until the desire for revenge 
burned strong within them. 

Then came retaliation, swift, sure, unexpected, and 
complete. 

In the early morning, at about the same time, on the 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 315 


same day, July 17, 1781, both pueblo-missions were 
attacked. 

At Bicuner, the two friars, Juan Diaz and Matias 
Moreno, were killed, as were the soldiers and some of the 
settlers. Others, and all of the women and children, were 
taken prisoners. The furnishings of the altar were cast 
into the river; and the church, as well as all the other build- 
ings, burned. ‘The vestments, the Indians appropriated to 
their own uses. 

At Concepcion, they were not so thorough—at first. 
Some of the colonists were away in the fields, and, after 
killing those at hand, the Indians, sparing the padres, aban- 
doned their bloody work—unable to resist the lure of 
Rivera’s camp beckoning them to wreak their vengeance 
there. 

The Yumas now withdrew, crossed the river, and—on 
the same day or in the early morning of the next—fell upon 
the camp in countless numbers. MHlurriedly entrenching 
themselves, the Spaniards met the attack with determined 
resistance and fought until not one remained. And so, 
Rivera, the unhappy one, died—whatever else, brave, and 
a true soldier to the end. 


What the Indians had intended there had been accom- 
plished; but their lust for revenge was still unsatisfied; 
murder was in their hearts. Concepcién was revisited. 

According to the tenets of their religion, all the Span- 
iards had been prepared for death—and Death came, com- 
ing, as to the others, to Francisco Garcés, who, follower 
of Jesus, the Christ, the Saviour of men, had, on that day, 
trod his own Via Crucis. And Death came to the young 
friar who was with him, Juan Barreneche. 

Again the women and children were spared and, although 
made to work, no harm came to them, nor to those at the 
pueblo-mission, San Pedro y San Pablo at Bicufer. 

Their victims were not tortured. The Yuma Indians 


316 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


simply killed, and as quickly as possible, ridding themselves 
of an undesirable element that had come to appropriate and 
lay waste their lands. 


Safely conducting the division sent in advance to its 
destination, Alférez Cayetano Limon was nearing the Colo- 
rado on his return, when rumors of the massacre began 
coming to him. Leaving two of his men to guard the pack 
animals, he went forward to ascertain the truth. He was 
not left long in doubt when he saw the burned buildings 
and came upon the dead—Padre Moreno’s body having 
been decapitated. As he was immediately attacked, he was 
obliged to retreat, fighting his way as he went. Both he 
and his son were wounded; and at the place he had left 
the two men, they found that both had been killed. 

At length, Limon reached San Gabriel, the bearer to 
Governor Neve of the ghastly news. He asked that he 
be allowed to return with twenty additional men, to avenge 
the murders. But this the governor did not sanction, and 
ordered Limon to Sonora by way of Loreto, to carry 
despatches to Croix. 

General Croix had already received news of the massacre 
before the arrival of Limon, and had ordered Lieutenant 
Colonel Don Pedro Fages to proceed to the scene of the 
tragedy with enough soldiers to bring the Indians to terms 
and to rescue or ransom the captives; and, on the gth of 
September, “a council of war was held at Arizpe, and 
decided that as the Yumas after urging the establishment 
of missions had risen without cause, they must according 
to the laws be proceeded against as apostates and rebels. 
A sufficient force must be sent to the Colorado to investi- 
gate, ransom, and punish, and peace be made on condition 
that the natives voluntarily submit, and deliver the cap- 
tives and their property; the ringleaders should then be 
put to death on the spot. If they would do this, well; if 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 317 


not, war should follow, and the neighboring tribes might 
be employed against the foe’ (Bancroft). Brave words 
those, but just words! 

An expedition under command of Fages was despatched 
to do these things. With him were the usual officers and 
one hundred soldiers, some of them Catalan Volunteers, 
and, also, many Indians friendly to the Spaniards—just how 
many does not appear, but, as the Yumas and their allies 
could put a large number of warriors into the field, rela- 
tively they were very few. 

When Fages arrived at the Colorado, the Yumas were 
nowhere to be seen. It was learned that the Indians had 
retired to dense thickets, about eight leagues down the 
river, impossible for the Spaniards to penetrate, and where 
they were perfectly safe from them. 

Negotiations were entered into, however, and it is 
thought that all the captives were ransomed. 

As it was inadvisable to attack where there was no pos- 
sibility of success, Fages took the rescued captives to the 
Presidio of Sonoita; and there, finding a request, which had 
arrived after his departure for the scene of the tragedy, 
that the bodies of the four friars be taken to the 
nearest mission for Christian burial, he turned about, after 
despatching his reports to Arispe, in which he announced 
his return to the Colorado, and went again to the river. 

Meantime, the resolutions of the junta of September 9 
had been forwarded by the comandante general to Governor 
Neve, instructing him that he was the proper official to 
take personal command or to direct the campaign through 
orders despatched to Lieutenant Colonel Fages. 

The bodies of Garcés and Barreneche could not be found 
when the expedition had first arrived at the Colorado; but, 
later, it was discovered that the good padre and the young 
friar had been buried and, it is said, their resting place 
covered with flowers by loving, albeit Indian hands. The 
bodies of the four friars were taken to Tubutama for 


318 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


burial— Mission ubutama, where Garcés had rewritten 
his diary. 

Again the junta met, and the report of Fages, sent from 
Sonoita, was read; and, again, orders were issued to him 
which did not reach him until he had returned. Fages was 
to march without delay, attack the Yumas, and send 
despatches to Governor Neve. If he was not successful 
in putting the ringleaders to death, he was to turn over the 
command to Neve; but on January 2, the same junta recon- 
vened and modified the order. This time Fages was to 
proceed as rapidly as possible to San Gabriel, and Governor 
Neve, with all available troops, was to begin a campaign 
on the 1st of April. 

Fages turned about again and set out for San Gabriel. 


XXV 


When those composing the division of the Rivera expedi- 
tion coming by way of the Peninsula arrived at San Gabriel 
on August 18, they were received by Governor Neve, who 
had come from Monterey to meet them. 

After the massacre at the junction, the idea of estab- 
lishing the Channel missions was given up for the time; 
but, as there was not the same need for reorientating and 
no reason to postpone it, Governor Neve issued instructions 
on August 26 for the founding of the new pueblo. 

The bando—edict—for the assignment of lands to the 
pobladores—settlers—had already been issued under date 
of March 8, minutely setting forth how they were to be 
assigned and how held. 

The pueblo was to be laid out on high ground near the 
river, from which water was to be taken for irrigation. 
The plaza, around which it was to be built, was to be two 
hundred by three hundred feet, the corners to the cardinal 
points. All house lots—solares—were to be twenty by forty 
varas each. One solar and four suertes—sowing lots—two 
irrigable and two dry, were to go to each settler, and all 
lands were to be “indivisible and inalienable forever’’—a 
long time! Neither salable nor mortgageable, the undivided 
holdings of a poblador might be left by will to one child in 
preference to another, thus not necessarily falling to the 
eldest. There were realengas—reserved lands; propios— 
sowing lands—rented to pay municipal expenses. There 
were to be neither tithes nor taxes for five years. They 
were to receive ten pesos a month and regular rations, for 
three years, together with an advance of clothing, live 


[319 ] 


320 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


stock, seed and implements, to be repaid from the yield of 
the land. 3 

On September 1, Governor Felipe de Neve, with the 
pobladores and their families in his wake, led the way from 
Mission San Gabriel to the spot already selected, about 
four leagues to the west, on the river named in 1769 by 
Don Gaspar de Portola; and there, on September 4, 1781, 
founded El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora La Reina de Los 
Angeles de Porciuncula. 

After surveys and plotting were completed, the lands 
were assigned. 


In this group of pobladores, later both weeded out and 
added to, assembled with their families for the founding, 
were forty-six persons: twelve men, eleven women, eleven 
boys, and twelve girls. These ‘‘founders,” after all the 
recruiting and the time taken to get them together, were 
a motley lot—a strange mixture of blood. Of the men, 
two were listed as Spaniards; four were Indians; one a 
mestizo—a half-breed, Spanish and Indian; two were 
negroes, out and out; while one was a chino, long thought 
by translators to have been, in some mysterious way, a 
Chinaman. The group was astonishing enough without 
that fantastic touch! Chino is not necessarily—yet some- 
times is—Chinese, for a chino is, also, the offspring of an 
Indian mother by a father who is Spanish and negro; a 
crinkly-haired youngster is sometimes teasingly dubbed 
“chinito.” 

The way they had mated is interesting: José de Lara 
and Antonio (Felix) Villavicencio, both so-called, or, 
maybe, genuine Spaniards, had Indian wives—but that was — 
very usual; while the mestizo, José Antonio Navarro, him- — 
self Spanish and Indian, had for a wife a mulattress. The — 
wife of one Indian was listed as a coyote—mongrel is a — 
good definition—but the others quite properly had Indian 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 321 


wives. ‘The mulattoes were mated with their own kind. 
The negroes were married to mulattresses. Whatever she 
was, the wife of the chino did not accompany him from 
Loreto, if, indeed, he, himself, ever came. He does not 
seem to have been again mentioned. Many children 
resulted from these mixed marriages. 

In Alta California, gente de razon—civilized persons— 
broadly included all except Indians, and, with the same 
exception, sweepingly, whatever the mixture of blood, all 
were “whites.” In Mexico, the population of whole vil- 
lages of mulattoes was officially listed as ‘‘white.” 

Before leaving Loreto, two settlers had deserted, and 
another, for some reason, had remained there. Of those 
finally assembled, three were unable to work. The others, 
however, worked to some purpose on the irrigating ditches 
and temporary palisade huts with roofs of mud. By the 
end of 1784, the huts had been replaced by adobe houses, 
and a church begun. De Lara, the Spaniard, and Mesa 
and Quintero, the negroes, must have been undesirable citi- 
zens, for they were sent away and their lands confiscated. 


Finding that no general outbreak had followed the mas- 
sacre, Governor Neve notified the padre presidente in 
February, 1782, that he was ready to proceed with the 
Santa Barbara Channel missions, and asked for two mis- 
sionaries to begin with. 

Padre Cambén had returned from the Philippines and 
was at that time at San Diego. Summoning him to San 
Gabriel, Serra went south overland to meet him, giving 
confirmation at San Antonio and San Luis Obispo on the 
way, and stopping for the night at the new pueblo of Los 
Angeles, founded in September of the year before. At 
that time, Serra was sixty-eight years old, and lame, and 
had just traveled nearly one hundred and thirty leagues, 


322 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


but on the next morning he was up betimes, and before 
noon—fasting—he had walked to San Gabriel (the present 
location, not where originally founded), where he sang high 
mass and preached a sermon. It would seem incredible, 
were not the authority (Engelhardt) indisputable. 

At a conference as to ways and means, in which Serra, 
Neve, and three missionaries took part, it was resolved to 
found at that time Mission San Buenaventura and the mis- 
sion and Presidio of Santa Barbara, without waiting for the 
six friars promised by the College of San Fernando for the 
Channel establishments. So that there might be no delay, 
Serra and Cambon offered to take charge of the new mis- 
sions temporarily, one at each place. 

On March 6, Governor Neve instructed Lieutenant José 
Francisco Ortega, who was to command the new presidio, 
that the Santa Barbara Channel missions were to be oper- 
ated as hospicios. ‘The Indians were to be allowed to 
continue, so far as possible, in their natural way of living 
and, further, they were not to be taken into the missions 
and put to work. Propaganda fide was to be brought about 
by pastoral visits to their rancherias. ‘Thus, custodias were 
clearly indicated; but, at all events, whatever was in con- 
templation, the mission system was to be departed from. 
This was not known, at that time, to Serra or to the other 
friars in Alta California. 

On Tuesday in Holy Week, March 26, the expedition 
set out—an imposing cavalcade: the two friars, Serra and 
Cambon; Governor Neve, Lieutenant Ortega, one alférez, 
three sergeants, a number of corporals, seventy soldiers, 
women and children, arrieros and a pack train, Indian 
servants and a number of neophytes to assist in putting the 
missions in working trim. But, about midnight, a courier 
overtook them, bringing despatches from Comandante Gen- 
eral Croix, ordering Neve to join Fages in a campaign 
against the Yuma Indians, and giving orders to proceed 
with the founding of Mission San Buenaventura, Governor 


; 
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, 
. 
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+ 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 323 


Neve returned to San Gabriel to meet Lieutenant Colonel 
Fages. 


Neve did not approve of the immediate campaign planned 
by Croix as the Colorado would be in flood, but decided 
upon September as the better time, after the Yumas’ crops 
had been garnered, when it would be easier to maintain the 
troops. Later, this decision was approved by Croix. 

Fages was sent back to the junction. 

On May 16, the junta met and passed many resolutions. 
These, together with the diary kept by Captain José Antonio 
de Roméu earlier in the campaign, were sent to Governor 
Neve for his information. 


On March 29, the caravan, on its way to found the 
new establishments, reached the spot chosen for the first 
mission, Asuncion, near the large rancheria at the southern 
end of the Santa Barbara Channel, and on Easter Sunday, 
falling that year, 1782, on March 31, the cross was raised. 
Thus, at long last, twelve years after the furnishings for 
“the intermediate mission” had been packed by Don José 
de Galvez with his own hands, Mission San Buenaventura 
was founded. A chapel, dwellings, and a stockade followed 
quickly, as the Indians, in exchange for a few trinkets, gave 
willing assistance. When Don Felipe arrived later and 
found the mission being conducted according to the old 
system, he made no objection. ‘The massacre at the pueblo- 
missions may have been the cause of his temporary or seem- 
ing docility. Fourteen soldiers were detailed as the mission 
guard. 

The Santa Barbara presidio was next established at San 
Joaquin de la Laguna, ten leagues to the northwest of San 
Buenaventura, on April 21 of the same year, 1782. Very 
strict orders were issued: Indians, except in small numbers 
and unarmed, were not to be allowed within the estacada; 
and soldiers were not, upon any pretext, to visit the 


324 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


rancherias, the penalty for infringement of this rule being 
fifteen days’ guard duty, wearing four cueras. 

A chapel was built, dwellings for the friars and officers, 
barracks for the soldiers, and houses for the families; and 
still no word was said by the governor as to what day the 
mission was to be founded. Finally, Neve told Serra that 
nothing would be done about it at that time. 

Serra was to have remained until the arrival of the six 
friars from Mexico, but as Mission Santa Barbara was not 
to be founded at that time he could see no reason whatever 
for remaining and, summoning a supernumerary to attend 
to the spiritual needs of the presidio, he took his departure, 
reaching his own mission, San Carlos Borromeo, about the 
17th of May. 

Several days before this, the long-expected vessels 
arrived at San Francisco but without the six friars. The 
two frigates were the Favorita—Captain Agustin de 
Echeverria, and the Princesa—Captain Estévan Martinez. 
Both chaplains were secular priests. [he usual supplies 
were brought, but nothing came for the Channel missions. 


Letters forwarded from San Francisco to the padre — 


presidente at Monterey enlightened him as to much that 
must have been already known to the governor while still 
unknown to him. For many months a lively controversy 
had been going on in Mexico over the Santa Barbara Chan- 
nel establishments, in which the viceroy, the comandante 
general, the Guardian of the College of San Fernando and 
the sindico were taking part—but of this Serra seems to 
have been in blissful ignorance. 

Truly, the outlook was dark and the trend of mission 
affairs to him, at that time, a matter of grave concern. 


Drawn from letters given by Engelhardt and from other 
sources, stripped of verbiage and circumlocution as nearly 
as may be, this is the story the frigates brought to Serra: 
Nearly a year and a half before this time, on December 7, 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 325 


1780, Viceroy Martin de Mayorga wrote to Fray Guardian 
Francisco Pangua, asking that six friars be detailed for the 
Santa Barbara Channel missions, mentioning that two 
would be expected to go with the overland division of the 
Rivera expedition and the others via San Blas, urging him 
to expedite the order, and saying: “I am ready to grant 
you the assistance which you for that purpose may ask of 
me’”’ (Engelhardt). 

Certain worrying clauses in the Neve reglamento, shad- 
owy custodias taking shape on the horizon, and the shabby 
treatment of Garcés and Diaz were good reasons for Pan- 
gua’s meticulously prepared reply of December 18 to the 
viceroy from the discretos of the College of San Fernando. 

He wisely determined to go carefully, not daring to take 
anything for granted. He therefore stated exactly what 
would be needed and expected for ‘‘church, house and field”: 
the usual furnishings, bells, vestments, funds for founda- 
tion; utensils, tools, farming implements; cattle and other 
animals, saying frankly that the two thousand dollars 
“released [libro] from the Pious Funds of California’ ” 
would not be sufficient to purchase everything on his list, 
nor had “‘ ‘the sindico ever covered the expenses with those 
means.’”’ He supplicated His Excellency “ ‘to be pleased 
to name another person to furnish said invoice’” (ibid.). 

It was known to Fray Pangua that up to the end of 
August, the supply ship for the year had not yet reached 
San Diego; and, with this in mind, he suggested that if 
it were not possible to provide adequately for all—missions, 
presidios, and pueblos already established and those in con- 
templation—it would be well to postpone the proposed new 
foundations for another year. 

(In Alta California, in that year, 1780, the specter of 
starvation stalked in their very midst.) 

Guarding against unannounced innovations, lest they be 
entering wedges for others, Pangua made the special point 
that six missionaries, two for each mission, be sent. In 


326 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


closing, he begged His Excellency to spare the friars the 
hardship of the eight-hundred-league journey overland and 
that he decree that all embark from San Blas, saying, 
ingenuously, ‘‘ ‘We are not accustomed, nor know we how 
to travel by horseback . . .’” (ibid.). 

No answer was received from the viceroy for nearly four 
months. At last, one dated April 5, 1781, arrived, bringing 
word that all the friars might proceed by way of San Blas. 
But as to requirements, only such things would be provided 
or forwarded as were specified by the comandante general, 
and that was final; the subject was closed, absolutely. 

Further, neither the Governor of the Californias, who 
knew the territory, nor the comandante general having 
suggested sending either household goods or field imple- 
ments, there need be no delay on that account; but if, after 
arrival, the friars found they were needed, the matter could 
then be taken up. And he hoped that His Reverence would 
see that they ‘“‘ ‘march without delay . . . and lose not a 
moment to accomplish this just object’ ”’ (ibid.). 

On the 7th, Pangua replied, in part, that it was not 
necessary for him to wait for a report from the friars to 
know what was indispensable to the success of their work, 
saying: “‘ “Indians . . . are attracted more by what they 
receive from the missionaries, than by what is preached to 
them’”’ (ibid.), and on April 9, he wrote, “ ‘After I 
informed the six religious destined for the Channel Mis- 
sions regarding Your Excellency’s order of the 5th of the 
current month, they addressed to me a written remonstrance 
which accompanies this, . . . I doubt that there are other 
religious who would want to go unless they are given the 
aid of what is necessary for house and field. Without this 
all declare that it would not be possible to found a mis- 
SION ius a FOR 

In a memorial dated the 19th, Pangua reasons his way 
through the whole subject, explaining that the missionaries 
ask nothing for themselves, but that the Indians “ ‘are 


SPANISH aug ATTN RNES 327 
mG EE | 
Hitentive chit shee whole Heart to Ghar: only fr om whom 


they receive temporal benefits’’’ (ibid.); that not only 
must there be something to catch their attention, but—more 
dificult—something to hold it: the garnered grain, the 
woven cloth—food and raiment—material aids, but with- 
out which nothing can be accomplished and which, coupled 
with education and training, lead gradually up to such 
spiritual comprehension as they are capable of developing. 

He diplomatically but distinctly states that the friars 
who had been detailed for the Santa Barbara Channel 
establishments decline to go and cannot be compelled; that 
they ‘ ‘had freely and piously offered themselves . . . but 

. now are not of the same mind’ ”’ (ibid.) ; further, that 

to the discretos of the College, this reason “ ‘for excusing 
themselves and of withdrawing seems just, prudent, and 
approved by long experience’”’ (ibid.). As a matter of 
fact, two only of the six friars detailed at that time ever 
went to Alta California: Diego Noboa and Juan Rioboo. 

In writing to Serra, Fray Guardian Pangua, after giving 
the tenor of the Neve reglamento which, at that date, had 
not yet been published in Alta California, said: ‘‘‘I fear 
that the governor will have to attempt the founding of 
all, or at least of one of the three missions; but here all 
uniformly feel that there must be no yielding unless all 
the assistance required is granted, . . . for there is no 
reason why the work of the missionaries should be 
bestroyea. . .’’ '(ibid.). 

Missionary work evidently was voluntary. The friars 
had the right to refuse and they did refuse. 

It looks very much like a “strike” on the part of the 
friars. 


XXVI 


On August 21, 1782, Governor Neve and Lieutenant 
Colonel Fages, who was again at San Gabriel, marched 
with sixty men to begin the postponed campaign against the 
Yuma Indians. When they were within about three days’ 
march of their destination, they were met by a courier bring- 
ing despatches to both, under date of July 12. El senor 
gobernador—the governor—had been promoted; and so, 
indeed, had el teniente coronel—the lieutenant colonel. 
Governor Neve had been appointed comandante inspector 
of the Provincias Internas, and, after having subdued 
the Yumas, was to proceed to Sonora. Fages was to turn 
back, then and there, returning as Governor of the 
Californias. 

Bancroft tells us that in the customary instructions from 
an official to his successor, secret in this case, dated Sep- 
tember 7, Neve “shows more opposition to the friars than 
ever before,” and that “If the governor was somewhat 
severe at the last, it must be admitted that his patience had 
been sorely tried.’ However sorely tried his patience may 
have been, must it not also be admitted that he, himself, 
was rather good at nagging? 


Under the comandancia, because of the distance of the 
province from the capital, Arispe, Sonora, the Governor 
of the Californias was also military inspector. There was 
an ayudante—adjutant—in Baja California, Don Nicolas 
Soler; and, in arranging to take part personally in the Yuma 
campaign, Governor Neve had, on July 12, ordered him 


[ 328 ] 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 329 


to Monterey to take charge during his absence, thus, in a 
way, creating him temporary ruler. 


Governor Neve was awaited at the Colorado by Captain 
José Antonio de Roméu with one hundred and eight men, 
and the third campaign against the Yumas was begun. 
Orders were followed but the campaign was a failure. 
Salvador Palma was not captured. Peace was not re- 
stored and never was, entirely, the Yumas remaining 
more or less hostile. Palma wrote, asking pardon ;—but, 
as valuable, devoted allies, the Yumas had been forever 
lost. 

The foundation of peace and good will, so carefully and 
well laid by Don Juan Bautista de Anza, had been wasted, 
and, depending on that, the unhampered use of the over- 
land route across the Gila and Colorado rivers could not 
be regained. 

Harking back: Entirely through Croix’s delay, the oppor- 
tunity to cement the already possessed friendship of the 
Yumas had been allowed to slip by. Obsessed by the 
Apache situation, it does not seem to have occurred to him 
that the Yumas, upon whom, at that time, he was relying 
as allies, left to themselves and with promises made to them 
disregarded, might, also, become unmanageable. Besides 
definite royal orders, Galvez had instructed Croix, urging 
the importance of looking well after Colorado-Gila affairs; 
Bucareli had mapped out a course for him to follow and 
Oconor had furnished him with valuable applicable informa- 
tion based upon his own experience. In large, all may be 
laid at Croix’s door—and must be, as he was the coman- 
dante general. 


Felipe de Neve, departing from Alta California, leaves 
one cold. He has struck no responsive chord; not a single 
note vibrates in unison; while Pedro Fages—who in all 


330 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


probability could not have framed the famous reglamento 
—comes to us a glowing personality. 

From Saucito, the camp in the desert, Governor Don 
Pedro Fages returned to Alta California, according to 
orders, going direct to San Diego to begin his tour of 
inspection there. On the way, he took care to have the 
Indians everywhere notified that hostile demonstrations 
would be severely dealt with. At the mission, he told the 
neophytes to see that runaways were informed forthwith 
that, if they did not return, he would, himself, fetch them ;— 
and, as to themselves, to look well after their own conduct! 
He inspected all the missions, giving no hint that he remem- 
bered in any way his unpleasant experience of 1773, when 
he was superseded at Serra’s request. At each mission, 
he repeated his admonitions, and with excellent effect. The 
mission Indians had grown lax during the Neve regime, 
and needed just such a “right about face” as Fages gave 
them. They knew him well of old, and knew that what 
he said he meant. 


In 1783, Governor Fages went to the south to welcome 
to the Californias his wife and small son, Pedrito, chris- 
tened Pedro José Fernando, not yet two years old, for 
whom Don Pedro Corbalan, Governor of Sonora, had stood 
sponsor; and, in April or May, they arrived at Loreto. 

La Senora Gobernadora Dona Eulalia Callis de Fages 
was a lady of quality in her own right—the first to journey 
to Alta California; and, in truth, she did not journey there 
willingly, for it had required much urging and persuasion, 
in which the former governor, Don Felipe de Neve, and 
Captain Roméu had assisted. Don Pedro was most anxious 
that she should be favorably impressed and every attention 
conditions permitted was shown her from the time she 
reached Loreto—by Dominicans, Franciscans, officers and 
troops, settlers, and even Indians—making her journey 
northward, which began in July, throughout, a triumphal 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 331 


progress, until her arrival at the capital in January, 
1784. 

Joyously, Don Pedro wrote to his mother-in-law, Senora 
Dona Rosa de Callis, as follows: ‘“ “The Senora Goberna- 
dora is the Benjamin of all who know her; she is getting 
on famously and Pedrito is like an angel; . . . we live 
here like princes’”’ (Bancroft). 

To a woman gently bred, life in Alta California at that 
time meant isolation and monotony. ‘The situation evi- 
dently “‘got on the nerves’ of Senora de Fages and the 
better of her judgment. It is a long story and much of 
it has no place in these pages. It has been told well, and 
quite spicily, by several writers and historians. It is enough 
to say that, coming unwillingly and remaining still more 
unwillingly, Dona Eulalia seems to have acted very unwisely 
in her efforts to free herself from her involuntary exile 
and to force Don Pedro to leave California by any avail- 
able means—forgetting her position and the proprieties— 
until things went very much from bad to worse between the 
couple. Even after a reconciliation, she went so far as 
to send secretly a petition to the Audiencia, in the fall of 
1785, asking for the removal of her husband on account 
of his health. Through the kind offices of a friend, the 
governor succeeded in intercepting the interesting document 
before it had been forwarded to Spain. 

Dona Eulalia did not succeed in forcing Don Pedro to give 
up his post. He remained in California;—and so did she! 


On June 2, 1783, the San Carlos—Captain Estévan 
Martinez—and La Favorita—Captain Juan Bautista 
Aguirre—arrived in the harbor of San Francisco. On the 
former came Juan Antonio Garcia Rioboo, and on the latter 
Diego Nobéa, two of the missionaries originally detailed 
for the Santa Babara Channel missions, but coming now as 
supernumeraries asked for by Serra. 


332 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


When the two friars reached San Carlos, they found the 
padre presidente ill, suffering from asthma and with a run- 
ning sore on his chest. These were not new ailments, but 
had been contracted years before in Mexico in a most 
unusual way, Palou writing of the cause as follows: 

““*Though he never said that he felt the pain and the 
suffocating spells, or that they molested him, I think he 
must have suffered from them, because I remember what 
his paternity practised in many of the mission sermons 
which he preached among the faithful in order to move his 
hearers to weep for their faults and to be sorry for their 
sins. In addition to the chain, which in imitation of San 
Francisco Solano, he would seize, and with which he would 
cruelly scourge himself in the pulpit, he would more often 
take a big stone, which he was accustomed to have ready 
in the pulpit. At the conclusion of the sermon, at the act 
of contrition, he would hold the crucifix with his left hand, 
and with the other he would mercilessly pound his breast 
with the stone during the whole time of the long act of 
contrition, so that many of the audience feared that he 
would crush his breast and fall dead in the pulpit. 

‘Tn order the better to excite his audience to repent- 
ance, especially when preaching on hell or eternity, the 
Father would also employ another violent device to punish 
his body. It was not only painful, but dangerous. In order 
that the people might picture to themselves the condition 
of a soul condemned for sin, he would on concluding bare 
his breast (for which purpose his habit and tunic opened 
in the front), and then apply a burning torch to his 
flesh. .. . The Father however, would descend from the 
pulpit as if nothing had happened to him, though it is but 
natural that he suffered, and that his breast must have 
remained sore. Yet he never complained, nor would he 
use any remedy. He paid as little attention to it as to the 
sore on his left leg. . . . He would moreover quote the 


Fe ge ee Eee ee 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 333 


words of St. Agatha, ““Medicinam carnalem corpori meo 
nunquam exhibui [Earthly medicine I have never applied 
to my body]”’” (Engelhardt, Palou). 

In this age of disinfectants and the careful sterilization 
of wounds, all this seems very terrible: these running sores 
for years uncared for; this maltreatment of the human 
body! But Serra’s behavior in the pulpit was very effective 
with his congregation, the Indians reacting with tears and 
lamentations. 


The padre presidente detailed Fray Noboa at Mission 
San Carlos, in order to be free, himself, for a final tour 
of confirmation, for he felt that the end of his earthly 
career was drawing near. He wrote to Palou, giving 
instructions as to the office of presidente which, ere long, 
he would hold, saying, “ ‘I tell you all this, because the 
next thing you may receive concerning me may be the notice 
of my death, so oppressed do I find myself. Recommend 
me to God’”’ (ibid.). 

The San Carlos and the Favorita had arrived from San 
Francisco; and, taking the other new friar, Juan Rioboo, 
with him, Serra embarked on the San Carlos in August for 
San Diego, arriving in September. 

Journeying northward from there, overland, he admin- 
istered confirmation at each mission and bade his colleagues 
farewell. 

At San Gabriel, he almost passed away, but his iron will 
carried him through, and he arrived at Mission San Carlos 
at Carmelo, in January, 1784, far better than when he had 
departed therefrom—and this, after a journey of one hun- 
dred and seventy leagues overland, in addition to confirma- 
tions, sermons, and the nerve strain of parting with the 
friars and their flocks. 

After returning to San Carlos, he resumed his usual 
duties. Lent, Holy Week, and Easter, with the many serv- 


3o4 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


ices and ceremonies, came and went, and still the padre 
presidente bore his part in all. 

Santa Clara’s new church was to be dedicated on May 16, 
and he had not yet visited either that mission or Mission 
San Francisco de Asis since his return from the south. 
He began the journey to San Francisco on the 30th of April, 
intending to visit Santa Clara on his way back and be pres- 
ent at the dedication. He arrived at the mission at Dolores 
on May 4, and, Padre Palou being called to Mission Santa 
Clara by the illness, resulting on May 11 in the death of 
Padre Murguia, it fell to him to prepare the candidates 
for confirmation. 


Padre Fray José Antonio de Jesus Maria de Murguia 
was born at Domayguia, Alava, Spain, came to the New 
World a layman, became a Franciscan, and was ordained 
at the College of San Fernando, Mexico. He accompanied 


Palou to San Diego in 1773, and in 1777 was assigned to 


Mission Santa Clara de Asis. 

Architecturally, the new church was the most ambitious 
effort yet made, and Padre Murguia was the architect, 
superintended the building of it, and, throwing himself 
whole-heartedly into the undertaking, worked the while as 
an ordinary laborer. He was buried in the church on May 


12, 1784. Not long after, Padre Nobda was appointed to — 


take his place. 
On the 15th, the padre presidente arrived and, on the 
same day, blessed the new church. At this mission, Serra 


prepared himself for death, went into retreat, ‘“‘‘and then — 


made a general confession, or repeated the one he had made 
at other times, while he shed many tears. Mine [says 
Palou] were not fewer‘. 2° ’(sbid.), 

After Serra’s return to San Carlos, he received letters 


forwarded to him from San Francisco, where they had ~ 


arrived on July 16. ‘They were full of discouraging news: 
Several friars had died; others, at the expiration of their 


oa ee 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 335 


ten years, had returned to Spain; and, he was told, no 
more could possibly be sent to Alta California until recruits 
arrived. 

During the time the padre presidente had been em- 
powered to administer confirmation, notwithstanding all 
the many hindrances, he had confirmed five thousand, 
three hundred and seven persons. But, on the same 
day the letters reached San Francisco, his faculty to 
confirm expired. 

All this made Serra very despondent. He felt that the 
end was approaching—and in more ways than one. He 
asked that prayers be said for him at all the missions, and 
that from each of the nearer missions a friar be sent, as 
he very greatly desired their presence at San Carlos. But 
he was far more urgent in his appeal to his devoted friend, 
Palou, begging him to hasten to him. Yet, on August 18, 
when Palou arrived, he found him up and about, and taking 
part in the services much as usual. He asked Palou, how- 
ever, to sing the high mass, celebrated on the 19th of each 
month in honor of San José, he, himself, singing in the 
choir with the neophytes. 

On the 27th, Serra wished to receive communion and, 
accompanied by the comandante of the presidio, troops, and 
neophytes, he walked unassisted to the church, about one 
hundred yards away. Says Engelhardt: ‘Fr. Palou de- 
scribes the remarkable scene. ‘I came vested from the 
sacristy and went to the altar. While I prepared to put 
incense into the censer to begin the holy ceremony, the 
fervent servant of God with his usual natural and sonor- 
ous voice, just as he was wont to do when well, intoned 
the verse Tantum ergo Sacramentum, tears streaming from 
his eyes the while. I administered the Holy Viaticum with 
the ceremonies of the ritual.’ At the conclusion, Serra 
remained long on his knees. 

When he left the church to return to his cell, he was 
followed by every one at the mission. 


336 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


In the early afternoon of the next day, August 28, 1784, 
he wrapped his cloak about him and lay down to rest—and 
Fray Junipero fell asleep to awake not again in this world. 

Roses of Castile—“Varias rosas de Castilla’’—of which 
he wrote on his journey into Alta California fifteen years 
before, covered him when, on the next day, he was borne 
with military honors and in solemn pomp and ceremony to 
the church, where he was interred in the sanctuary before 
the altar of Nuestra Senora de Dolores, near his lifelong 
friend, Juan Crespi. 

Miguel José Serra was seventy years, nine months, and 
four days old on the day of his death. 

Padre Fray Francisco Palou, who had been designated 
to act as presidente in the event of the death of Serra, now 
assumed control. 

Governor Fages was not at Monterey and therefore was 
not present at the funeral. 

On September 4, Serra’s garments were cut into bits 
and distributed for scapularies. 


On February 6 of the next year, 1785, Padre Fray 
Fermin Francisco de Lasuén was appointed presidente for 
Alta California. Ina letter to him, Fray Sancho, Guardian 
of the College of San Fernando, wrote: ‘“ ‘Fr. Lector 
Palou since last year is in possession of the license to retire 
which Fr. Junipero has asked for him; and now an order 
has arrived from the Most Rev. Commissary-General of the 
Indies that we should notify said Father to come to the 
College as soon as possible. For this reason Your Reverence 
will direct him to execute the command . . . and to use 
the license which he has from me.’ This letter reached 
Fr. Lasuén in September, 1785” (ibid.). 

As Palou had intended to remain in Alta California for 
the rest of his life, some good reason must have been 
behind Serra’s request for a license for him to retire. It 


4 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 337 


may have been expediency, for it was important that some 
one versed in Alta California mission affairs and having 
them at heart should be at the capital; or it may have had 
to do with the publication of Padre Palou’s writings, his 
Noticias de la Nueva California and his Life of Serra, 
written in great part during his last year at San Carlos— 
the Vida to us, but possessing in its own right a formidable 
title: Relacion Historica de la Vida y Apostolicas Tareas 
del Venerable Padre Fray Junipero Serra (and a great deal 
more). The Vida was printed in 1787, but the Noticias 
did not appear until 1857. Palou is regarded by Ban- 
croft as “the best original authority for the earliest period 
of mission history.” 

The last entry at San Carlos, under the hand of Palou, 
is dated September 7, 1785. 

On February 21 of the next year, he reached the capital, 
having been detained by illness at Querétaro. He was not 
well when he arrived and was still in the infirmary at San 
Fernando, when, on July 1 of the same year, 1786, he was 
elected Guardian of the College. 


Early in 1783, Don Felipe de Neve was appointed 
comandante general of the Provincias Internas, succeeding 
Don Teodoro de Croix, who became Viceroy of Peru. In 
September of the previous year, following his appointment 
as inspector general with the rank of brigadier, Neve had 
been further honored by being given the cross of the Order 
of San Carlos. 


After the tragedy at the Gila-Colorado junction, some- 
body had to be the scapegoat, and it fell to the lot of the 
Governor of New Mexico, that upright, competent officer, 
Don Juan Bautista de Anza. 

Croix asserted that Anza was responsible because his 


338 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


reports had been so favorable in regard to the friendliness 
of the Yuma Indians that he had been entirely misled by 
them and had given orders that, otherwise, would never 
have been issued. 

Anza’s position was still more unenviable after the de- 
parture of Croix, for Comandante General Neve, who, it 
seems, did not know him, pursued him, for reasons known 
only to himself, with persistent, petty spite. 

“Tt was the custom for Spanish officers to draw up an 
annual service sheet which at the same time gave an indica- 
tion of their entire career. Neve ordered Anza to omit 
styling himself the discoverer of the route to Alta Cali- 
fornia, on the ground that that honor belonged to the 
Indian Tarabal! He also commanded him not to lay claim 
to the victory over Cuerno Verde, asserting that the credit 
really belonged to Azuela, Anza’s subordinate in that fight! 
Furthermore, he quarreled with Anza over his handling of 
New Mexican affairs, and asked Galvez for his removal, 
stating that he was incompetent. 

‘Through all this misfortune Anza’s conduct was exem- 
plary. As a subordinate he was not in a position to resent 
Neve’s insults. He met them, though, with a becoming 
dignity and clearness of explanation that would have con- 
vinced anyone who was not predisposed to an opposite 
view’ (Chapman). 

In November, 1784, Don Felipe de Neve died. By 
royal order of October 1, 1785, General Don Jacobo de 
Ugarte y Loyola became comandante general of the Pro- 
vincias Internas. In the interim, José Antonio Rengel was 
in command, appointed by the Audiencia of Guadalajara. 


The comandancia had been organized as independent of 
the viceroyalty in most matters, but with the accession, in 
1785, of Viceroy Bernardo de Galvez, nephew to Don 
José, it was subordinated. After his death in November, 
1786, there was a brief period of independence, but in 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 339 


March, 1787, Don Manuel Antonio de Flores, vice admiral 
in the royal navy, became viceroy and the same authority 
was given him. Lines were not very clearly defined and 
“full powers’ were handed back and forth as expedient. 
There were shiftings of authority and redivisions of the 
Provincias Internas. In 1787, they were split in twain: 
the East and the West, with Ugarte in command of the 
latter which included the Californias—none of which need 
be gone into further here. | 


Ugarte, who knew Anza of old, came openly to his 
defense, writing to Galvez, in 1786, ‘“‘that Neve’s opinion 
of Anza’s government of New Mexico had been founded 
on the incorrect reports of the latter’s opponents and that 
Anza had in fact merited praise rather than removal. ‘This 
was a courageous letter under the circumstances”’ (ibid.). 

Anza, awaiting in New Mexico the arrival of his suc- 
cessor who had been appointed—although he, himself, had 
not been provided for in any way—‘ petitioned for the 
governorship of a province in the viceroyalty, where he 
might pass the remainder of his days in freedom from 
hardships. Ugarte warmly espoused this petition, and 

. . Rengel . . . wrote across the document itself that 
he too endorsed it. Yet again, in 1787, Ugarte wrote to 
Galvez . . . this time urging that he be made governor 
of Texas. ... Anza did not become governor of Texas, 
and no record has come to light showing him in possession 
of any other post. He seems to have remained in New 
Mexico until 1788, when at length his successor arrived. 
Thereupon Anza disappears from view. Thus did one of 
Alta California’s most intrepid heroes pass into undeserved 
obscurity” (ibid.). 

The end of the trail! 

This—to those who have known Juan Bautista de Anza 
in the pages of history as the brave soldier, the gallant 
officer, commended as the exception in his kindly, just treat- 


340 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


ment of his men; who have followed Anza, the experienced 
frontiersman, breaking a way into Alta California, farsee- — 
ing, everywhere in his relations with the Indians wisely 
safeguarding those who were to follow—even in outline, is — 
a story of cruel injustice. Told at length, the participants — 
in the shunting of the blame do not inspire admiration! 


XXVII 


In the Neve reglamento, governor and military inspector 
were recognized as one and the same person and were so, 
in fact, during the incumbency of the framer of the regula- 
tions; but when he became inspector general of the Pro- 
vincias Internas and continued Soler, who had been left 
in command, as military inspector, Don Felipe muddled his 
own work and created an anomalous situation. Logically, 
Fages, the new governor, should, also, have been coman- 
dante inspector and Soler, ayudante—adjutant—as he had 
been prior to the departure of Governor Neve. 

In a letter to Captain Roméu, dated December 21, 1782, 
Don Pedro says “ ‘the reglamento keeps me in a chaos of 
confusion since it supposes the government and inspection 
united, and as the latter has been separated I find myself 
very much embarrassed in my projects and measures, in 
order not to make them impertinent and cause discord with 
the ayudante’”’ (Bancroft, note). 

Fages and Soler were friends but, do what they would 
to prevent, a quarrel was inevitable should their relative 
positions remain the same. ‘The situation was unnatural 
and became so complicated that Fages was obliged to ask 
for instructions as to their respective duties. 

The governor was in a very trying position: on the one 
side, Soler, who, he says, was “‘ ‘deadly at intermeddling’ ”’ 
(Richman), desirous for himself of the office held by Fages, 
and quite ready to note any laxness on the part of the gov- 
ernor in enforcing obedience to the letter of the new 
regulations; on the other, the padres, not understanding just 
what was happening to them (for the reglamento was not 
promulgated in Alta California until nearly the end of 


[ 341 ] 


BAR SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


1784), and holding him personally responsible for each 
affront. 

Fages took the treatment accorded him by the friars very 
much to heart—that is evident—referring to it in his let- 
ters: in substance that, with Soler at his elbow, such con- 
cessions as he dared make were requited by insults. 

Richman’s résumé is interesting and is, in part, as fol- 
lows: ‘Did he go half a league from San Carlos Presidio 
to greet Father Palou—he was rebuffed by scowls and 
taciturnity. Did he furnish the padre three attendants and 
three of his best horses, and direct in his honor a salute 
of two guns—Palou would not even break bread with him. 
Did he pay a visit to San Carlos Mission—Father Matias, 
in Palou’s presence and by him abetted, stamped roundly 
his foot, and cried out upon him. Did he, at San Luis, 
ask from Father Caballer (Catalan like himself) an in- 
ventory, saying that inventories had been rendered at the 
other missions of the South—he was told to his beard that 
he would be believed when the documents were produced. 

. the padres, even in their letters, denied him the 
courtesy of the usual form of address,—Muy Seftor mio 
(My very respected Sir), and Beso a4 Vd. su mano (I re- 
spectfully kiss your hand). At such disrespect, he (‘not 
as Fages but as governor’) stood fairly aghast. Because 
he obeyed orders, he was said . . . to be ‘persecuting the 
frailes,’ when, in truth, he had endured so to be dragooned 
by them that, looking within, he had been obliged to say 
to himself, ‘I am governor, not Fages.’ Distraught, how- 
ever, though he was, . . . he was resolved to depart no 
jot from duty. So comporting himself he could not be 
put to blush, and would have his reward from conscience.” 

Departing ‘‘no jot from duty” may or may not, accord- 
ing to the date of the occurrence, account for the demon- 
stration on the part of Padre Matias recounted above. On 
June 11, 1785, Governor Fages wrote Padre Matias An- 
tonio Noriega, one of the friars at Mission San Carlos, 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 343 


that the natives were accusing him of beating them with 
chains, which charges he had investigated and found to 
be true; and implored him in the name of humanity and 
the king to desist. 


With no outside interests, no distractions from imme- 
diate surroundings, these little groups on the northwest 
coast of the Californias had leisure and opportunity to 
observe and criticize each other. Psychologically, condi- 
tions were malign. 

The padres had their grievances; and, by 1785, the gov- 
ernor’s had accumulated so that he had, or thought he 
had, enough to warrant an appeal to the viceroy. This 
memorial is dated September 26, in which he directly 
charges the friars with laxness in performing chaplain duty 
at the presidios; that the patronato real was disregarded 
by them; that they did not accept official prices for mission 
produce; and that they failed to ask permission before 
leaving the province. 

This memorial was sent by the viceroy to the guardian 
at San Fernando. It was answered by Padre Palou, who 
said that chaplain duty at the presidios was voluntary— 
not obligatory; that, nevertheless, except at the Presidio 
of San Francisco, where there was no proper place to hold 
services and with the mission at Dolores near enough for the 
troops to attend them there, chaplain duty was performed 
even under difficulties, as at the Presidio of Santa Barbara, 
to which place the friars went from San Buenaventura; at 
San Diego, he, himself, had gone regularly six miles from 
the mission to the presidio. 

Among other things, he said that escorts for the friars 
had been withheld; that, as to the patronato real, it was 
not entirely understood by the governor; as to tariff prices, 
they should vary and should not be as low in times of 
scarcity as when there was an abundance; and that the 
reglamento had not been published until 1784. 


B44 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


In due course, the whole affair was referred to the coman- 
dante general of the Provincias Internas, Jacobo Ugarte y 
Loyola, who, in turn, asked information of the padre 
presidente of Alta California, Fray Fermin Francisco de 
Lasuén. Thus, it was back almost where it had started— 
except that it was on the other side of the fence. 

This afforded an excellent opportunity, of which he took 
advantage, for Lasuén to air certain matters needing an 
airing but having nothing to do with the charges in the 
Fages memorial. 

Finally, General Ugarte and the 4udiencia were as “‘con- 
fused” over the assertions and contradictions as had been 
Don Teodoro de Croix over all the affairs of the Cali- 
fornias. The findings were that Government and Mission 
were to keep within their own jurisdictions and that har- 
mony must prevail! But there were other findings (lest we 
forget) : the missionaries were to be paid for chaplain duty 
at the Presidio of San Francisco and furnished with escorts 
for “indispensable journeys.”’ 


The reglamento, with Captain, by brevet, Soler, as 
a necessary attachment, was an unenviable legacy from 
the framer to his successor. Nor were the two pueblos, 
San José and Los Angeles, desirable inheritances. As being 
premature, the padres had not approved of pueblos for 
Alta California; and their disapproval was justified by 
results. 

The Law of the Indies strictly forbade the indiscriminate 
intermingling of Indians and whites in villages because 
demoralization of the Indians was the inevitable conse- 
quence, the “whites” being often lacking in morals of any 
kind—except bad. 

Here—in these pueblos—the Law of the Indies was torn 
into shreds, for gentile Indians, both men and women, were 
employed in all sorts of ways. Not much real work was 
actually done by the pobladores themselves, the Indians 


Tas 


De ae a ee ee 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 345 


being ready and willing to do it for them’ for little or 
nothing. They were idle; gambling was the order of the 
day, and immorality prevailed. The teachings at the 
missions were shaken by the abominable behavior at 
the pueblos which, later, became veritable hotbeds of 
iniquity. 

To improve conditions, comisionados were appointed. 
Ignacio Vallejo was given the office at San José but fell 
from grace. Governor Fages had been ordered to sup- 
press licentiousness, and, in a letter from him, this comision- 
ado, whose notoriously too intimate relations with the 
daughter of one Gonzalez had been reported, came in for 
a raking. Fages wrote, in substance, that he felt the more 
keenly this dereliction on Vallejo’s part because he had 
commissioned him “in the belief and confidence that he 
would suppress immorality instead of himself presenting so 
scandalous an example of it” (Hittell). 

Vicente Félix was comisionado at Los Angeles. In 1787, 
Governor Fages found it necessary to issue a long list of 
instructions which were to ‘‘be publicly read in presence 
of the soldiers and all the inhabitants of the pueblo, so 
that each and all might have an opportunity of learning 
their respective duties and obligations” (ibid.). 

These instructions were principally to enforce regula- 
tions already in effect, but Fages added a few of his own 
making: ‘One of these, to which he called particular 
attention, was an order to prevent what he called the 
pernicious familiarity that had theretofore been allowed 
the gentile Indians . . . that thenceforth when such Indians 
were employed in grinding meal or other domestic labor, 
even though they were women, they should be compelled 
to do it outside the houses; . . . and, if from distant 
rancherias, they should in effect be herded at night near 
the guard-house and under the eyes of the sentinel” (ibid.). 

Other instructions to the comandante at Monterey, in 
reference to couriers, forbade them to leave the main road, 


346 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


stop at any rancheria, dismount, or, under any pretext what- 
ever, while on duty, to lay aside their arms. 

‘Another set of his instructions was directed against the 
use of aguardiente . . . at the same time calling, though 
doubtless in vain, upon all subordinates to enforce his 


orders” (ibid.). 


Under date of March 9, 1785, orders had been received 
by Governor Fages from the interino, General Ugarte, to 
found Mission Santa Barbara at once; and, in bringing 
the matter to the attention of Padre Lasuén, Fages stressed 
the point that all was in readiness for the founding and had 
Leen for some time. But the padre presidente made no 
gesture of acquiescence. Don Pedro suggested that two 
padres, Noboa and Riob6o, were available. Lasuén thought 
not. This was not the first time the governor had found 
himself between two fires in the matter of the Santa 
Barbara Channel missions. 

However, when a letter, dated April 1 of the next year, 
1786, was received by Padre Presidente Lasuén from Fray 
Guardian Sancho, stating that, by order of the viceroy, six 
missionaries for the Channel missions were to be sent, then 
—and not till then—mission machinery moved. 

There were to be no innovations—Sancho cautioned— 
and, unless everything coincided exactly with the regular 
mission plan, Lasueén was to withhold the friars. 

No innovations were proposed. That point had been 
gained. (For missions, there must be missionaries.) In 
Church versus State, the friars had scored! 

With nothing now in the way, all went swiftly forward 
to a happy conclusion, and on December 4, 1786, after 
years of controversy—after political and ecclesiastical red 
tape had been many times tied, untied, and prettily retied 
into diplomatic bowknots—Miuission Santa Barbara was, at 
last, successfully established. Padre Presidente Lasuén 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 347 


officiated. Fray Paterna and Fray Cristébal Oramas, a 
newcomer, were the first missionaries. On the 16th, a high 
mass was sung in the presence of Governor Fages who had 
been unable to be present on the 4th, and the official found- 
ing was complete. 

On December 8 of the following year, 1787, Mission 
de la Purisima Concepcion, the third Channel mission (San 
Buenaventura having been the first) was established. Again, 
the padre presidente officiated. The first missionaries were 
Fray Vicente Fuster and Fray José Arroita, another new- 
comer. 


To a certain extent, Fages was relieved of the incubus, 
Nicolas Soler, when, under date of February 12, 1786, the 
comandante general united the two offices and the gov- 
ernor became, also, comandante inspector, which was 
strictly according to the sense of the Neve reglamento. 
Toward the end of the year, Soler turned over the office 
and resumed his position as ayudante, but he still managed 
to give a great deal of trouble, and “ventured to disagree 
with his compadre to such an extent that on one occasion he 
was put under arrest at Monterey with orders to go on 
with his duties, but to enter the presidio always by the little 
door, and to pass back of the church to his office!” 
(Bancroft). 

Soler succeeded, also, in making himself thoroughly 
ridiculous in a report called for from him, in 1787, at the 
same time as one from Fages, in which he, nevertheless, 
told the unvarnished truth when he wrote that he “‘ ‘had no 
head to present any project or circumstantial plan’”’ (ibid., 
note). 

He had not, indeed, but wandered on, presenting his 
conclusions lengthily in thirty-five articles. Some of his 
recommendations are astounding. In small part and in 
effect, he advised that Spaniards be granted land at the 


3.48 ' SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


missions, suggesting that the government had spent all the 
money on the Indians at the missions that could be afforded; 
that the Indians had been neophytes long enough and were 
fitted for civil life; that military escorts should be withdrawn 
from missions and pueblos——and much more equally 
edifying. 

Soler’s advice was not followed; such a calamity would 
seem to have been guarded against by Governor Fages in 
his comments upon the report, forwarded at the same time 
(Comentarios sobre Informe del Capitan Soler, 8 de Nov. 
1787. Ms.), in part: “that the natives are kept in order as 
neophytes only by the unremitting efforts of the friars, and 
are as yet wholly unfit to become citizens; . . . that the in- 
troduction of Spanish settlers into the missions would inter- 
fere with the laws of the Indies providing that the mission 
lands are to belong to the natives eventually when they 
shall be fitted to profit by their possession’ (Bancroft, 
note). 


Presidio accounts required no knowledge of higher 
mathematics, yet not all the officers could keep them 
straight. Habilitados were supposed to be voted for by the 
soldiers, but this was not practical and, in reality, relative 
fitness was considered and the appointees were agreed upon 
by the governor and the inspector. But, in making these 
appointments, Fages and Soler found it difficult to agree. 
Soler had little confidence in anybody and was ever ready 
to charge irregularities. And, not connected in any way 
with dishonesty, deficits did often occur. 

One poor soul, Rafael Pedro y Gil, came to San Diego 
in 1774, as storekeeper. Before the year was out, he asked 
to be relieved. Do what he would, his accounts would get 
loose and run away. In 1775, there was a deficit of three 
hundred and thirty-three pesos. Thereupon, he asked to be 
dismissed before he should be ruined. But, evidently, he 
was left to his fate, for in October, 1781, he went to San 


ee ee ee ee an ee ah a Te a oa | 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 349 


Blas under arrest, the deficit at that time being nearly seven 
thousand pesos/ Again, we hear of him at Etzatlan, 
Jalisco, and, again, he was in debt to the government. 

There was some system of holding back the pay of these 
unfortunates. A speedier and more drastic method would 
have been less cruel. They seem to have been mortgaged, 
body and soul, to the government. 

A case in point is that of Don José Ramon Lasso de la 
Vega. Not every one so called on the northwest coast was 
a don by birth. Lasso de la Vega was. Says Bancroft: 
‘Lasso the habilitado was a stupid fellow, though neither 
dishonest nor dissipated, always in trouble with his accounts, 
and always recommended to the executive clemency. During 
his first brief term in 1781-2 he managed to leave a deficit 
of about $800; and early in 1787 Captain Soler discovered 
a still more serious and inexcusable defalcation. His usual 
excuses of forgetfulness, stealing by soldiers and convicts, 
and the melting-away of sugar during transportation would 
no longer save him; he was suspended from office, placed 
under arrest, and obliged to live on twenty-five cents a day, 
the rest of his pay as alférez being reserved to make up the 
deficit in his accounts. This state of things continued for 
over four years, and then, the amount having been in great 
part repaid, he was dismissed from the service; but the 
king subsequently granted him retirement and half-pay.” In 
a note in Bancroft, we find that Governor Fages, in writing 
to Arrillaga, says: ‘ ‘Our poor Lasso has received his re- 
tirement with half-pay as alférez, as petitioned by you, for 
which may God reward you.’ ” 

Sometimes, however, Soler’s charges were groundless. 


After the death, on July 13, 1785, of Lieutenant José 
Joaquin Moraga, comandante at the Presidio of San 
Francisco, there was some shifting about of officers. 
Lieutenant Diego Gonzalez, utterly unfit, who had been 
under arrest at Monterey for insubordination, gambling, 


350 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


and trading with the galleons, which was forbidden, was 
sent to San Francisco. In 1787, his unseemly conduct hav- 
ing continued despite warnings and rearrest, he was ban- 
ished to the frontier by order of the governor. José Dario 
Argiello, company alférez at Santa Barbara, was then pro- 
moted to the command. 

Alférez Hermenegildo Sal followed Gonzalez as coman- 
dante at Monterey, and was followed by Lieutenant José 
Francisco de Ortega, who had been rusticating in Baja 
California. 

Ortega had always been a valuable officer and had been 
in command of the Presidio of Santa Barbara from the time 
it was founded. He was charged by Captain Soler with 
incompetency and not understanding his own accounts; and, 
through Soler, alone, had been removed from office by the 
comandante general and ordered to Baja California—which 
was equivalent to demotion. He had been rescued by Fages 
and brought back, and was to have been given his old 
presidio but, a vacancy occurring at Monterey, went there. 
The reason there was a vacancy at Monterey was that 
Hermenegildo Sal had been charged by Soler with a serious 
deficit in his accounts and placed under arrest. 

Sal’s property was attached and, at first, two-thirds of 
his pay held back; but, later, he, too, was put upon an allow- 
ance of twenty-five cents a day. The charge was preferred 
against him in August, 1787, and was proven absolutely 
without foundation in fact, for, in place of a deficit of three 
thousand pesos, it was found that six hundred were due 
him—but it took Sal three years to clear his name of 
dishonor! 

Nicolas Soler was no genius at figures—in straighten- 
ing out Lasso de la Vega’s accounts he had mixed them up 
still further—neither was he a friend to Sal. Suspecting 
Soler of an intrigue with his wife, Sal had threatened to 
kill him—yet it was Soler who had been placed under arrest 
to protect him from Sal. It is not likely that any of this 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 351 


had been forgotten and Soler’s position protected him while 
it afforded him the opportunity to get even with Sal. 

Meantime, Governor Fages had asked for the removal 
of Captain Soler. On April 17, 1788, Soler demanded a 
court-martial and a full investigation. To put an end to 
the matter, the office of ayudante was abolished. The gov- 
ernor, himself, was to go, once in two years, to Loreto to 
inspect the troops. 

Soler was summoned to Arispe, and, on August 30 of the 
same year, wrote to Governor Fages “announcing his 
departure . . . and referring to slurs cast upon his char- 
acter’ (Bancroft, note). He was appointed comandante 
at Tucson, dying shortly after. Fages alluded to his death 
in a letter dated February 25, 1790. 

Says Bancroft: “Strangely enough after all his fault-find- 
ing and his constant search for defalcations on the part of 
others, he left California with a deficit of about $7,000 in 
his own accounts; that is, he owed that amount to the pre- 
sidios [and missions], and it is difficult to account for such 
a debt except on the theory that he took improper advan- 
- tage of his official position. ‘The debt had to be paid out 
of his half-pay after his death.” 


Again, amid the bitterness, there is found something 
sweet—an antidote for the venom in much of the foregoing 
—in a letter written ‘February, 1790, by Jose de Zuniga, 
the comandante of San Diego, to his mother Dona Maria 
Barbara Martinez. Addressing her ... as ‘Estimably 
dear little mother and madam,’ he complained that it had 
been days since he had heard from her or from Don Boni- 
facio; and in his anxiety he prayed God it was not on 
account of want of good health on their part: as for him- 
self, he was strong and robust. He had the pleasure of 
informing her that in the course of the past year a beautiful 
church had been commenced at the presidio under his charge 
and an image in honor of the pure and immaculate concep- 


352 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


tion provided for it; that he had been instrumental in accom- 
plishing the work and had himself personally labored as 
a mason and as a carpenter and had painted the whole with 
his own hands; and he thanked God that she would thus 
see that her son, who had done things that were evil, was 
now zealous in doing things that were good. He went on 
to say that he sent her fifty dollars as a present for herself 
and his Senor father, and ten dollars to be expended in 
carmine, vermilion and other painting materials, which he 
required and which he desired should be forwarded to him. 
He further requested if she had any comedies to spare, not- 
withstanding they might be old ones, that she would send 
them; for, though he had but little time to read, yet they 
would serve to divert him in those solitudes; . . . And in 
conclusion, after asking for some garden and flower seeds, 
... he... signed himself her most affectionate son, who 
‘S.P.B. [sus pies beso ]—kisses her feet’”’ (Hittell). 


XXVIII 


While the question of the Channel missions hung in the 
balance of “to be or not to be’’; while the accounts of 
habilitados were being investigated with energy if not with 
accuracy; while isolation and monotony reaped abundant 
harvests in petty bickerings and gossip at the presidios, and 
idleness and ignorance harvests of debauchery at the 
pueblos, other California affairs—though they moved at a 
snail’s pace—did not remain at a standstill. 

Arriving at Monterey on one of the vessels sailing from 
San Blas, in June, 1786, was Don Vicente Basadre y Vega, 
armed with credentials, commissioned to investigate the pos- 
sibilities of the supply of otter and seal skins and to organize 
their collection on a systematic basis under government 
auspices. Letters on the subject came not only to Governor 
Fages but to Padre Presidente de Lasuén, for the mis- 
sionaries were to be given an opportunity to take an active 
part in the collection and distribution of these ‘‘tem- 
poralities.” 

On August 29, Governor Fages issued a proclamation 
with regulations governing the collection of skins: The mis- 
sionaries were to receive the skins from the Indians and 
deliver them to Basadre during his stay, at tariff prices 
ranging from a minimum of two pesos four reales to ten 
pesos, according to size and color. ‘The government was 
to be sole purchaser. All persons were prohibited from 
trading in furs with the Indians. Neophytes having furs 
in their possession were to deliver them up to the padres. 
After the departure of the commissioner, skins received at 
the missions would be forwarded through the comandantes 


[ 353 ] 


354 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


of the presidios. Furs finding their way to San Blas through 
other than official channels would be confiscated. 


The first officially announced and properly accredited 
foreign visitor to Monterey was Jean Francois de Galaup, 
Comte de la Pérouse, coming on board the frigate La 
Boussole, in command of an expedition of two vessels, the 
second, L’ Astrolabe, being commanded by M. de Langle. 
The expedition, despatched by the French government for 
scientific research, with a full corps of specialists, on a 
voyage around the world, particularly for the discovery of 
the northwest passage and the investigation of the fur trade 
in North America, sailed from Brest, France, in 1785. 

When the vessels were sighted off the coast on Septem- 
ber 14, 1786, the transports Princesa—Captain Estévan 
Martinez—and Favorita—Captain José Tobar—were in 
port. ‘Their boats were sent to pilot the visitors into the 
bay. Asa salute of seven guns boomed from the fort (so 
far the official welcome was perfection), the vessels came 
to anchor, somewhat to the discomfort of those on board, 
amidst a school of vigorously spouting whales,—an unusual 
feature not on the program! 

The expedition had reached the Pacific by way of Cape 
Horn, having gone as far as the Aleutian Islands before 
sailing down the coast to Monterey. 

The little capital took on an unknown gayety; but, for 
the next ten days, there was a very great deal doing besides 
wining and dining. Don Pedro Fages not only carried out 
orders, but, La Pérouse says, “ ‘he put into their execution 
a graciousness and air of interest which merit from us the 
liveliest acknowledgment. He did not confine himself to 
obliging words... . Vegetables, milk, poultry, all the 
garrison’s labor in helping us to wood and water were free; 
and cattle, sheep, and grain were priced at so low a figure 
that it was evident an account was furnished only because 
we had rigorously insisted on it. M. Fages joined to his 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 355 


generosity the most gentlemanly demeanor; his house was 
ours, and we might dispose of all his servants’”’ (Bancroft). 

During their short stay, every assistance was given the 
scientists in their researches; and all, M. de la Pérouse, 
M. de Langle, M. Rollin (the chief surgeon), were busily 
engaged in making up reports along their respective lines. 
Information of all kinds was furnished them. They wrote 
exhaustively, with accuracy and insight,—but the pueblos 
seem to have been neglected! Bancroft says that La 
Pérouse “evidently did not hear of San José and Angeles, 
for he states that there were absolutely no Spanish inhab- 
itants but the soldiers.’’ Perhaps he was not told of them. 
There is wisdom in discreet reticence and, verily, the two 
pueblos were nothing to boast of to strangers! 

La Pérouse was greatly impressed with the potentialities 
of the country, but predicted a slow development under 
Spanish control, and thought that the best outlook in the 
near future, commercially, was for trade in peltries, which, 
if properly managed, ‘‘might prove to the Spaniards more 
profitable than the richest gold-mine in Mexico. Fages 
told him he could furnish 20,000 skins each year, or by 
means of new establishments north of San Francisco many 
more’ (ibid.). He says: ‘‘‘We cannot fail to be aston- 
ished that the Spaniards, having so close and frequent inter- 
course with China through Manila, should have been igno- 
rant until now of the value of this precious fur. Before this 
year, an otter-skin was worth no more than two rabbit- 
skins; the Spaniards did not suspect their value... ” 
(ibid., note). 

During the stay of the expedition, Don Vicente Basadre 
was at Monterey. [La Pérouse mentions him as “ ‘a young 
man of intelligence and merit, who is to depart soon for 
China for the purpose of making there a treaty of com- 
merce in otter-skins’”’ (ibid.). 

_ An invitation to dine at San Carlos, with the opportunity 
to study the mission system, was, he says, “‘ ‘accepted with 


356 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


’ 


eagerness.’ ’’ He was charmed with the personality of 
Padre Presidente de Lasuén. He writes of the missionaries 
as men of very superior character. He was impressed by 
their exemplary lives in such marked contrast to those led 
by the “ ‘monks of Chili,’”’ of whom he had written, whose 
‘irregularity’? had so scandalized him. To him, these 
men, austere, charitable, religious,—needing only “ ‘a little 
more philosophy,’ ’—were “ ‘truly apostolic.’ ”’ 

He did not, however, approve of the mission system; 
and thought that the efforts of the friars would be wasted, 
that the system was not such as to dispel ignorance, nor 
did it seem possible that it would lead to the civilization 
desired by the government. Too much stress was laid upon 
the hereafter to the exclusion of the present: ‘““Ihe neophyte 
was too much a child, too much a slave, too little a man”; 
and he “‘saw in the tout ensemble of the Franciscan estab- 
lishments an unhappy resemblance to the slave plantations 
of Santo Domingo”’ (ibid.). 

The toil expended on the grinding of corn by the neophyte 
women amazed him, and a hand mill that would do the 
work of a hundred was presented to Mission San Carlos. 
Whether the mill was ever used is another matter and open 
to conjecture. 

Writing of the natives generally, he says: “ “These 
Indians are small, feeble, and do not show the love of 
independence which characterizes the northern nations, of 
which they have neither the arts nor the industry ...’” 
(1bid., note). 


The potato had been known in Spain for more than two 
hundred years, and was referred to in Pedro Cieca’s 
Cronica de Peru, published in Seville in 1553, and in other 
books of the time, as the “batata’ or “papa.” It is sup- 
posed to have been found by the Spaniards in the neigh- 
borhood of Quito, where it was used as a food at the time 
of the conquest of Peru. Humboldt is authority for the 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 357 


statement that it did not grow wild in Mexico. Never- 
theless, it is strange that Alta California should have been 
indebted to the Comte de la Pérouse for its introduction. 
He had brought some from Pert, which he duly presented, 
as he felt certain they would grow and be a welcome addi- 
tion to the products of the province. 


On the 24th of September, the expedition sailed away. 
In December of the following year, 1787, M. de Langle 
and most of his men were killed by the natives at Mauna, 
one of the Samoan Islands. Journals and two letters, the 
last dated February 7, 1788, to the Ministry of Marine, 
reached France from Botany Bay, but nothing was ever 
heard of the expedition after that. Wreckage found many 
years later on the reefs of Vanikoro, an island north of the 
New Hebrides, was supposed to have been that of La 
Boussole and L’ Astrolabe. 


Because of news brought by the Pérouse expedition of 
Russian occupation as far south as 56°, 30’, a royal order 
of 1780, discontinuing voyages to the far northwest, was 
disregarded. A detailed report was made to Viceroy Ber- 
nardo de Galvez, of what he had been told by La Pérouse 
himself, by Captain Martinez, of the Princesa, who offered 
his services for further investigation. 

By order of Viceroy Manuel Antonio de Flores, who 
succeeded Galvez, an expedition was sent north on March 8, 
1788, under command of Martinez on the Princesa, with 
the San Carlos as consort, commanded by Gonzalo Lopez 
de Haro. 

Russians were found not only at Kadiak but on Unalaska, 
and were heard of elsewhere. On the way south, the 
Princesa put in at Monterey but the San Carlos sailed 
straight on to San Blas, arriving on October 22. 

Martinez had a great deal to report, upon his return, 
including a conversation with the Russian factor at Kadiak, 


358 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


who told him that his government had been informed as 
to the activities of the English in that part of the world; 
and, as Russia had prior rights, four frigates were to be sent 
from Siberia some time during the coming year, to assert 
them. 

Martinez and Lopez de Haro were sent back the follow- 
ing year in command of the same vessels. 


Trade in furs with China was now no new thing—the 
outcome of the venture made by the Cook expedition of 
1778-9. When the startlingly profitable results were pub- 
lished in 1784, a world-wide flurry followed in the desire 
to go and do likewise. In one way or another, European 
countries having interests in the Pacific were represented 
in the scramble, as was North America—the United States 
into the bargain, by the so-called “Boston ships.” ‘The 
Russians were actively engaged in the trade, from the 
Aleutian Islands. The English had been soon’ upon the 
scene, and kept up a regular commerce between Nootka 
and Canton. It was surmised that England had an eye 
upon Nootka for permanent occupation. 

The great opportunity, however, was Spain’s. But her 
attempts toward utilizing it were so feeble and so futile 
that the gold-producing otter was filched from beneath her 
almost nonresisting hand. Profits in furs were enormous 
but, to Spain and the Spaniards, so trifling, relatively, as 
to seem, through this perspective, negligible quantities. 


Nootka was becoming a rendezvous for vessels engaged 
in the fur trade. In 1788, the first of the ‘Boston ships” 
arrived: the Lady Washington and the Columbia; and, 
on May 5 of the next year, 1789, when the Princesa 
dropped anchor in Nootka Sound, the Columbia was there. 
Also, and far more important, as it happened, were the 
Iphigenia, flying the colors of Portugal, her consort, the 
Northwest America, and the Argonaut—all British. 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 359 


Captain Martinez had been instructed to occupy Nootka 
and to build fortifications—but here was something unex- 
pected, and he turned his attention to the three vessels. 
Between the day of arrival and July 14, he had seized them 
all, with everything and everybody on board! 

This was the beginning of the ‘Nootka affair”: the cause 
of a long controversy and very nearly the cause of war 
between England and Spain. 

When Captain Estévan José Martinez reached San Blas, 
he was relieved of his command. 


The “Boston ships” at Nootka, in 1788 and 1789, had 
been the subject of an official communication received by 
Fages and passed on in a letter, dated May 13, 1789, 
marked reservada—confidential—to Comandante José 
Dario Argiiello of the Presidio of San Francisco, in which 
he was instructed: ‘‘ ‘Should there arrive at the port of 
San Francisco a ship named Columbia, which they say 
belongs to General Washington of the American states, 
and which under the command of John Kendrick sailed from 
Boston in September 1787 . . . you will take measures to 
secure this vessel and all the people on board, with dis- 
cretion, tact, cleverness, and caution, doing the same with 
a small craft which she has with her as a tender... ’”’ 
(Bancroft). 

This matter had disposed of itself before the order was 
received. The Columbia went on around the world, taking 
on a load of tea in China, and was back at Boston in 1790, 
being the first ship to circumnavigate the globe under the 
American flag. 


Great distances, lack of facility for transportation, and 
the circuitous course of documents were the cause of much 
delay but were not alone responsible. There was another 
factor in government affairs: the Spanish method of archiv- 
ing everything as it passed along from official to official, 


360 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


each in turn filing the document received, making out an 
entirely new paper, adding his quota where required and 
then transmitting it. As these documents were lengthy, 
often badly written, and added to at each way station, it 
was a slow process. 

The following, an unimportant and rather absurd inci- 
dent, illustrates: Some time in the latter part of June, 1776, 
when the settlers who had been conducted to Alta Cali- 
fornia by Lieutenant Colonel Don Juan Bautista de Anza 
were en route to San Francisco, a herd of elks as large as 
oxen was observed, whose antlers spread far and wide, 
sixteen palmos—twelve feet—from tip to tip. A report 
of the wonderful animals reached Spain, and the king 
requested that specimens be secured for his royal park. 
The viceroy was informed of his desire through the usual 
channels, but, meantime, jurisdiction had been transferred 
to the comandancia. The royal request was, therefore, 
sent to the comandante general, Don Teodoro de Croix, 
who forwarded it to Governor Neve; but before it was 
received, Don Felipe de Neve was no longer the governor. 
The order was then transmitted to Governor Fages, 
together with a letter from Neve, charging him to attend 
to it, and ‘“‘at the same time ordering Jose Joaquin Moraga, 
comandante of the presidio of San Francisco, to go out and 
catch the elks’” (Hittell), six years and more after they 
had been seen. 


On June 17, 1787, Don José de Galvez died at Aranjuez, 
Spain. According to Bustamante: ‘‘ ‘His death is supposed 
to have been due to apoplexy, but in those days that might 
have been either poison or the garrote (strangulation). 
However this may be, Galvez died leaving many ene- 
mies... . Nevertheless he was a great minister 

*” He must, indeed, have been. His dazzling 
career after his return to Spain bears out the statement. 


~~ ee ae es 


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; 
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SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 361 


Honors came in rapid succession—enemies followed as the 
night the day. It is interesting—all the more so—in view 
of his reported insanity while in Sonora, of which we are 
cognizant,—effects and after-effects of a protracted, recur- 
rent malignant fever of the country. 

Soon after his arrival, he took up his work in the Council 
of the Indies, and that year was created ‘‘Caballero Gran 
Cruz of the Real y Distinguido Orden de Carlos III.” 

The next year, he made “inspections of the Archivo de 
Indias and of the Archivo General de Simancas.”’ On Jan- 
uary 26, 1774, he was appointed to a membership in the 
Junta General de Comercio, Moneda, y Minas, serving at 
the same time, without pay, as superintendent of the regalia 
de corte. In 1775, Don Julian de Arriaga died, and, in 
1776, Galvez became Ministro General de las Indias; and, 
less than a month after, was made governor pro tempore 
of the Council of the Indies, to serve in sessions of the Coun- 
cil or of the Chamber, and to vote therein, should the gov- 
ernor, the Duke of Alva, not be able to attend, but when 
he was present Galvez sat by his side. In 1777, upon the 
reorganization of the Council, he was appointed governor 
of the first chamber of the three: the sala de gobierno de 
Nueva Espana; and, in 1780, he ‘was made a member of 
the Consejo de Estado.” In 1785, a title of Castile was 
conferred upon him when he was honored by being created 
Marqués de Sonora. He also held other positions of 
honor, one being that of perpetual regidor of the city of 
Malaga. 

The glamour of the court, the distractions of high office, 
and the heart-hardening effect of power, combined, did not 
cause this man of a hundred energies to forget the little 
town of Macharaviaya—the birthplace of the erstwhile 
shepherd lad. The education of the village children was 
looked after, he and his brother codperating in building 
schools; and the young men were given preference in the 
royal service in America. ‘That there might be occupation 


362 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


for all, a manufactory for playing cards for export to 
America was established in 1776, remaining for many years 
a monopoly. 

The human side of José de Galvez made him carry with 
him, in his ascent to greatness, brothers, nephews, and other 
relatives—nepotism, if you like, but not unusual, and prac- 
ticed by even the Pope of Rome. ‘The most successful was 
his nephew, Bernardo, son of Matias, his elder brother; 
and both father and son were viceroys of New Spain. In 
1783, Bernardo was created Conde de Galvez. His 
brothers—Miguel, as ambassador to Prussia, and Antonio, 
as mariscal de campo in the royal army—served the king 
with distinction. (Drawn, and where quoted, from 
Priestley. ) 


In 1788, on December 14, Carlos III, King of Spain, 
died at Madrid, and was succeeded by his son, Carlos IV. 


Don Manuel Antonio de Flores, who had resigned 
because of ill health, was followed as viceroy, in October, 
1789, by Don Juan Vicente Gtiémes, Pacheco de Padilla, 
Horcasitas y Aguayo, Conde de Revilla Gigedo. 


In 1790, Captain Francisco Elisa, on the Princesa, with 
the San Carlos, commanded by Lieutenant Salvador Fidalgo, 
and the Princess Royal—a captured sloop—under Lieu- 
tenant Quimper, sailed under orders to establish a perma- 
nent post on Nootka, at Friendly Cove. This was estab- 
lished and maintained, supply transports usually going direct 
to Nootka and stopping at Monterey on the return voyage. 
Fidalgo spent some months surveying the coast and visiting 
Russian settlements, while Quimper made an extended 
exploration of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The underlying 
cause for all this exploration was still the search for the 
Strait of Anian, upon which so much depended for Spain. 

In July, 1789, under orders from the king, two vessels— 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 363 


royal corvettes—with the double names usual among ves- 
sels of the Spanish navy, sailed from Cadiz, Spain, on a 
voyage around the world for scientific research and explo- 
ration, but, primarily, to find the Strait of Anian. The 
expedition was commanded by Alejandro Malaspina, an 
Italian, on board the Descubierta or Santa Justa; and the 
consort, the Atrevida or Santa Rufina, by Jose de Busta- 
mante y Guerra. Of the long list of scientists and officers 
serving in one or another capacity, most, but not all, were 
Spaniards. 

Explorations were made on both coasts of South America 
and on up from Panama to Acapulco, from which port the 
voyage was continued to latitude 60°. Returning down the 
North American coast, scientific investigations were carried 
on and surveys made. 

On September 13, 1791, the two corvettes cast anchor 
in Monterey Bay. Upon arrival, a gunner, originally from 
Boston, who had shipped from Cadiz, whose name is not 
certainly known to have been John Groem, was brought 
ashore to be buried—the first American landing in Alta 
California. 

At San Carlos, the Indians were put to work collecting 
specimens for the scientists, resulting, for the mission, in a 
substantial farewell donation from the expedition, which 
proceeded on its way on September 25. 

After the long voyage out from Spain, the time con- 
sumed and the expense incurred, the scientific work done 
and the human energy lavished upon it, most of what had 
been accomplished seems to have been wasted, for the 
reports of the expedition were never published, and. but 
brief notice is given it in the records. And, for irregu- 
larities of some kind, Malaspina was imprisoned. 


According to the Neve reglamento, back of the coast 
missions a second, or inner, chain of missions was to be 


364 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


established, about equidistant between those forming the 
outer line. 

A short time after the accession of the Conde de Revilla 
Gigedo to the viceroyalty of New Spain, he wrote to Fray 
Matias de Noriega (who had been six years at the Alta 
California missions), the superior ad interim at San Fer- 
nando, following the death of the guardian, Fray Francisco 
Palou, saying that in accordance with the report of Septem- 
ber 22, received by him, he had “ ‘resolved that two missions 
should be established in New California, one in the valley 
called Soledad close to the Rio de Monterey, between 
the mission of San Antonio and that of San Carlos, and 
the other between the missions San Carlos and Santa 
Clara, about twenty-five leagues distant from the former 
on the spot called Santa Cruz.’’’ He asks the guardian 
to name four friars and to let them set out promptly, in 
order to be in time for the first ship sailing to Monterey; 
and also states that all necessary orders have already been 
issued. He says: “I hope . . . that on your part you 
will procure the discovery of suitable localities between 
San Diego and San Juan Capistrano, San Gabriel and San 
Buenaventura, in order to fill up those gaps with other 
intermediate missions . . . ’’’ (Engelhardt). 

This news reached Monterey on August 2, 1790, and 
four friars arrived. Agricultural implements came and ~ 
other things, but no church goods. Experience had taught — 
the Franciscans that nothing material was to be taken on — 
faith—these church furnishings might or might not arrive — 
—and the viceroy was duly informed of the oversight. 

Under date of January 20, 1791, instructions to proceed — 
were received from the viceroy: to borrow from the other ~ 
missions; and that orders would be given at once in regard — 
to church goods, which would be forthcoming. The call — 


issued by the padre presidente on the missions already ~ 


established to supply those about to be—an old custom— 
is dated July 22, 1791. Nearly a year had been lost. 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 365 


On the 28th of August, 1791, Padre Lasuén founded 
Mission Santa Cruz, detailing Padres Isidro Alonso Salazar 
and Baldomero Lopez as the first missionaries. And on 
October 9 of the same year, Mission Nuestra Senora 
Dolorosisima Soledad was founded, Padres Diego Garcia 
and Mariano Rubi being detailed there. 


On May 26 of the year before, Padre Presidente de 
Lasuén had received documentary authority to administer 
confirmation. ‘This document had been started on its long 
journey more than five years before, on May 4, 1785. On 
July 13, 1790, the final papers (permission from the Bishop 
of Sonora) arrived, and out of the ten years allowed by 
the concession, less than five remained! This is another 
striking example of Spanish circumlocution. 


XXIX 


Aita California had a warm place in the heart of Don 
Pedro Fages, the hot-headed Catalan, frank of speech and 
incapable of petty spite. It is possible that he had hoped 
to remain there at the expiration of his military service, 
for, a short distance out from Monterey, he had planted 
his vine and fig tree. But circumstances were strongly 
against his remaining: worry, bitter controversies, domestic 
unhappiness; long years of strenuous frontier service, hard- 
ships—weariness of mind and body—told a tale, at last, 
in broken health for him. Constant urgings to leave the 
country did the rest, and, in the latter part of 1789, he 
asked to be relieved with leave to visit Spain. ‘This was 
granted on May 16 of the next year, 1790, with pay for 
one year advanced that he might, while in Spain, have “the 
wherewith for his expenses.”’ He was ordered to report 
in Mexico. 

Don José Antonio de Roméu, who had served with him 
in the Colorado campaign, his warm personal friend, was 
named as his successor. And, in a letter, dated Septem- 
ber 14, 1790, to Roméu, expressing his pleasure at his 
appointment, Fages says: ‘‘ ‘You will find in this casa real, — 
which is sufficiently capacious, the necessary furniture; .. . 
and near by a garden which I have made at my own expense, 
from which you will have fine vegetables all the year, and © 
will enjoy the fruits of the trees which I have planted,’” — 
speaking also of “‘‘a sufficient stock of goats and sheep 
which I have raised’”’ (Bancroft, note). Later, he makes — 
a present to Roméu of his beloved orchard, his six hundred ~ 


[ 366 ] 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 367 


fruit trees which he has attended to since 1783, his shrubs 
and grapevines. 


According to orders, he was to turn over the office at 
Loreto either personally or through the lieutenant gov- 
ernor, Jose Joaquin de Arrillaga. ‘The latter course was 
adopted. 

With his orders to Arrillaga, February 26, 1791, Gov- 
ernor Fages despatched the customary instructions to his 
successor and such information as might be useful to him. 
Most of the orders to which he refers are already familiar, 
as is, also, much of the information imparted. But, in 
alluding to the great increase in mission live stock, he adds 
that the neophytes are becoming too skillful as vaqueros 
and acquiring an ‘‘ ‘Apache insolence.’’’ One of the rea- 
sons for not allowing bales of goods brought by the supply 
transports to be opened until after the departure of the 
vessels is, he says, to prevent the bartering with the sailors 
of necessary for unnecessary articles. He warns him that 
trading with the galleons is strictly prohibited and says that 
while the friars have always wanted to buy, permission has 
never been given. 

(Nevertheless, there was a great deal of trading with the 
galleons sub rosa.) 

In a letter to Roméu, of May 28 of the same year, he 
writes of constant friction with the Franciscans, saying that 
they insist on being independent, each in his own mission; 
but that the Dominicans in Baja California have given him 
no trouble, as Padre Presidente Gomez is disposed to main- 
tain harmonious relations. He frankly expresses his opin- 
ion in regard to those with whom Romeu will soon come 
into personal contact, speaking highly of Lieutenant Govy- 
ernor Arrillaga; Lieutenant Zuniga—an officer he held in 
especial esteem; of José Dario Argitello, comandante at 
San Francisco; deems Felipe de Goycoechea given to care- 
lessness, and says nothing at all of Ortega. He states that 


368 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


there is not a sergeant suitable for the position of habili- 
tado, but that ‘Vargas is faithful and can write.” 


Don José Antonio de Roméu, born at Valencia, Spain, 
was appointed gobernador propietario by Viceroy Revilla 
Gigedo. He was, at that time, major of the Espana Dra- 
goons, with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He had served 
in the Indian wars in Sonora, and in the Colorado cam- 
paign against the Yumas after the massacre. 

When he and his family embarked for Loreto, he was 
not well, and when they arrived, on March 17, he was a 
very sick man. 

On April 16, 1791, the formal transfer was made by 
Arrillaga, representing Fages, and Roméu became Goy- 
ernor of the Californias. 

His orders were to make the journey to the capital a 
tour of inspection and, because of his ability in untangling 
such complications, he was to give particular attention to 
presidial accounts, which had reached a state of confusion. 
These orders were never fully carried out, for on the long 
journey from Loreto to Monterey, courage was not able to 
do away with serious illness, and Governor Roméu was 
seriously ill, passing sleepless nights and suffering endlessly 
with pains in the chest. What must be done officially was 
done, but inspections of presidio accounts were perfunctory. — 

The governor’s party arrived at San Diego in August, — 
remaining ten days or more. 


Senora de Fages, Pedrito, and another child—perhaps — 
two children—born in California, had long since gone to — 
Mexico, but Don Pedro stayed on at Monterey. While — 


awaiting the arrival of the new governor, Colonel Fages, — 


as he was now called, was putting everything in order for © 
his friend, making improvements and building a new church. 


To the historian, Fages is a high light in the picture; — 
and, as Bancroft truly says, one parts “with the honest — 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 369 


Satara). reluctantly.” He says he was “brave, a 
skilful hunter and dashing horseman... . Of fair educa- 
tion and executive abilities, hot-tempered and inclined to 
storm over trifles, . . . he was withal kind-hearted. . . 
He was thoroughly devoted to the royal service and at- 
tended with rare conscientiousness to every petty detail of 
his official duty; yet his house, his horse, and above all his 
garden were hardly second in importance to his office, his 
province, and his nation.” That is a fine exposition of 
what the historian finds in the character of Fages, and very 
just. 

In comparing him to Neve, Bancroft says: ‘He pos- 
sessed less breadth of mind, less culture, and especially less 
dignity of manner and character than Felipe de Neve, but 
he was by no means less honest and patriotic.” 

Richman, in writing of the early governors and coman- 
dantes, cuts to the bone in his estimate of the two. He 
says: “Neve and Fages remain, each a man of character, 
but, strange to say, only one (Fages) a man of personality. 
Neve, indeed, possessed so much character, was so imper- 
turbable, kept so well his temper, wrought with an inexor- 
ability so final, as to be personally of scant account. Neve 
was the Reglamento and the Reglamento was Neve— 
little besides. Among early California rulers, therefore, it 
is upon Fages that personally the emphasis falls... .” 

Neve was out of place on the far-away northwest coast 
of the Californias, in the breadth and vastness of the great 
outdoors. He was not big enough for his surroundings: 
there was a certain smugness in his capability. He should 
have been behind a desk, in an office with the windows shut 
—a bureaucrat. There is something desiccated about Neve! 

Fages is very human, the hunter, the horseman, the sol- 
dier; and, even in the dusty pages of history, all alive. 


Governor Roméu reached the capital on the 13th of 
October, 1791. 


370 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


Colonel Fages was still there but shortly after took his 
departure. We hear of him in Mexico in 1793, as making 
a report on the presidio buildings at Monterey, and in 1794 
he was still residing at the capital. 


His illness continuing, Governor Roméu was able to 
attend to only the most pressing matters connected with his 
office. 

On December 1, the royal confirmation of his appoint- 
ment arrived. 

In the spring of 1792, the governor’s condition grew 
worse. It became apparent that he could not recover, and 
on April 5, the surgeon, Pablo Soler, at the request of the 
comandante, made a written statement to that effect. There- 
upon, Argiiello called a junta to consider what, in the event 
of the death of the governor, would be the proper proce- 


dure, at which were present Comandantes Ortega, Goy- — 


coechea, and Sal. It was decided that, in such event, the 
lieutenant governor, Captain José Joaquin de Arrillaga, 
would become, according to regulations, governor ad 
interim—gobernador interino; that, temporarily, the pro- 
vincial archives should be kept by the junta; and that, in 
view of the critical condition of the governor, the lieu- 
tenant governor was to be notified at once; Goycoechea 
and Sal were to return to their presidios, but Ortega was 
to remain at the capital and upon the death of the governor 
was to proceed to Loreto. Despatches to Arrillaga were 
forwarded on the same day, April 5. 

On the gth, after receiving the last sacrament, Governor 
Roméu died, and on the next day was interred at San 
Carlos. In October, Senora Dona Josefa de Sandoval de 
Roméu and her daughters returned to Mexico. 


Arrillaga received the news of the death of Governor 
Roméu on May 3. On the 4th, he wrote the viceroy, 
announcing his succession, and on the 7th he wrote to the 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 371 


oficers in Alta California. Official recognition of him as 
temporary governor by Viceroy Revilla Gigedo, with in- 
structions to continue as such until a successor could be 
appointed, is dated July 8. As interino, he had intended 
to remain at Loreto, but on September 28 he was ordered 
to the capital, not, however, arriving at Monterey until 
early in July of the next year, 1793. 


‘For the selection of missionaries to unbelieving nations 
St. Francis gave this regulation: ‘Let the brethren, who by 
divine inspiration desire to go among the Saracens or other 
infidels, ask leave therefor from their ministers-provincial; 
but the ministers must give permission to go to none except 
to those whom they see fitted to be sent’”’ (Engelhardt). 

Usually, this was carried out very carefully, but occa- 
sionally there was a slip somewhere—and the College of 
San Fernando was the victim of one of these, when the 
two friars Bartolomé Gili and Mariano Rubi arrived in 
1788. 

Nothing approaching the state of affairs brought about 
by their arrival had ever had to be met. All efforts toward 
the redemption of these ‘‘unworthy friars’’ were unavailing, 
and amazement reigned within the walls! 

While, no doubt, mortifying to expose the shortcomings 
of members of their brotherhood to government officials, 
yet the friars in question must, if possible, be returned 
whence they had come. With this in view, the viceroy, 
Don Manuel Antonio Flores, was appealed to; they were 
reprimanded and threatened with deportation—but no real 
help came. 

They, themselves, petitioned to be sent to the Alta Cali- 
fornia missions, and in October, 1790, the new viceroy, the 
Conde de Revilla Gigedo, so ordered. ‘This was with the 
approval of the discretos of the college, and was sanctioned 
by Padre Fray Matias de Noriega, who was filling out 


312 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


the unexpired term of Padre Palou, deceased, whose con- 
sciences were soothed with the hope that with change of 
scene there would come a change of behavior; and thus 
these two scapegraces were deposited in Alta California, 


and—it may have been a part of his “earthly cross’— — 


inflicted upon Padre Presidente de Lasuen. 


Rubi arrived in 1790 and Gili the next year. At the 
beginning of 1793, Padre Lasuén was obliged to report — 
them both as ill and demanding to be retired to their — 


college. 


Anticipating but wishing to avoid unnecessary delay, — 


Lasuén, equal to the occasion, presented their application 


to the comandante of Monterey, Don José Dario Argiello, — 


together with the certificate of the surgeon, Don Pablo 


Soler, as to the nature of Rubi’s disease. Argutello granted 
the request as to him, and shortly afterward he was on his 
way to Mexico. Left behind, Gili became very trouble- 
some, and in the fall of the same year, Lasuén reported 


to Arrillaga that he and Surgeon Soler agreed in finding © 


the friar unfit for service at the missions. 
In May, 1794, Pangua wrote to Lasuén that the viceroy 


had consented to Gili being returned to Mexico and asked ~ 


Lasuén to forward certain information, already requested, — 
in regard to the two friars, ‘“‘ ‘for the object is the honor ~ 


of the College and the expulsion of the mangy sheep 
(Engelhardt), to which Lasuén replied that it had all been 
forwarded and that he had nothing to add. 


In July, 1794, the viceroy’s permit arrived and Gili 
departed on the Concepcion, acting as chaplain. He never 
arrived at the College of San Fernando; but the guardian — 
received a letter from him, written at Acapulco, in which — 
he says that he is compelled by the captain of the ship to 
go on to the Philippines—and that is the last heard of 


Bartolomé Gili! 


In the spring of 1794, Rubi wished to be permitted to 
go to Tampico to the mission there and was reported by 


9298 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 373 


Pangua as having recovered his health, but this time the 
viceroy did not give the desired permission and Rubi was 
ordered to remain where he was. 


To the layman, reading between the lines, the sending 
of these “unworthy friars’ to Mexico, the utter inability 
of the college to have them returned to Spain, their being 
sent to Alta California, Gili being taken to the Philippines 
and Rubi forced to remain in Mexico, point to the possi- 
bility that the two were “black sheep” from families pos- 
sessing much political influence. 

At all events, they were the only ones out of a long list— 
one hundred and thirty-two—who tarnished the fair name 
of the Franciscan order in California. 


XXX 


On one of the vessels despatched under various orders — 


to the northwest coast, in the spring of 1792, by Viceroy 


Revilla Gigedo, the Santa Gertrudis, commanded by — 
Alonso de Torres, sailing on March 1 from San Blas, — 
was Don Juan de la Bodega y Cuadra, Spanish commis- — 


sioner, en route to meet the British commissioner, Captain 


George Vancouver, to discuss and determine certain points — 


still pending in the Nootka matter. 


On March 8, the two schooners, the Sutil, commanded ~ 
by Lieutenant Dionisio Alcala Galiano, and the Mexicana, — 
commanded by Lieutenant Cayetano Valdés, under orders — 


to explore the Strait of Juan de Fuca, sailed from Acapulco. 


Some time in the middle of the month, the Activa, also a ~ 
schooner—Captain Salvador Menédez Valdés—got under — 


way from San Blas and followed the Santa Gertrudis — 
to Nootka. On the 2oth, the frigate 4ranzazu—Captain — 
Jacinto Caamano—which was to search for the Rio de los © 
Reyes, and, on the 23d, the Princesa, under Fidalgo, who ~ 
was to found a regular post at Nunez Gaona on Fuca — 


Strait, departed—both from San Blas. 


Bodega arrived at Nootka at the end of April, and, 


fully instructed, proceeded to further familiarize himself 
with the situation in question. Vancouver, on the sloop 


Discovery, carrying twenty guns and one hundred men, — 


with the Chatham, carrying ten guns and forty-five men, as 


consort, under command of Lieutenant William R. Brough- © 
ton, crossed from the Sandwich Islands, sailing on March © 


[ 374 ] 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 375 


18, and from a point a little below Cape Mendocino, passed 
on April 19, made explorations northward. 

On the 29th, a vessel standing in shore was sighted. 
This was an event, as none had been seen in eight months. 
American colors were hoisted and a gun was fired to lee- 
ward. ‘They spoke her and found her to be the Columbia, 
commanded by Robert Gray, hailing from Boston, but 
absent from that port nineteen months. 


Nootka was not reached until toward the end of August. 
Upon approaching the entrance to the port, the Discovery 
was visited by one of the Spanish officers, accompanied by 
a pilot who conducted ‘“‘the vessel to anchorage in Friendly 
cove, where,” says Vancouver in 4 Voyage of Discovery to 
the North Pacific Ocean, and Round the World, under date 
of Tuesday, the 28th, “‘we found riding his Catholic Majesty’s 
brig the Active, bearing the broad pendant of Sent. Don 
Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, commandant of 
the marine establishment of St. Blas and California.” 

The Chatham was already in port, as was the Dedalus, 
storeship of the expedition, which had arrived from Eng- 
land. 

Salutes were fired and returned. Vancouver’s visit of 
one day was returned the next by Bodega, who breakfasted 
with the English commissioner. ‘Then, Vancouver says, 
‘‘As many officers as could be spared from the vessels with 
myself dined with Senr- Quadra, and were gratified with 
a repast we had lately been little accustomed to, or had 
the most distant idea of meeting with at this place. A 
dinner of five courses . . . was served with great elegance; 
a royal salute was fired on drinking health to the sovereigns 
Seeenoiand and spain... :’*’ Elsewhere, he’says he 
dined with him “‘almost every day.” | 

Official correspondence was entered upon and pourparlers 
were had, formal and informal, which last Vancouver pre- 
ferred, setting down, under date of September 12, that in a 


3716 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


little after-dinner talk, there had been “‘a prospect of com- 


ing to so perfect an explanation as to render any further 
epistolary altercation totally unnecessary.” 

But pourparlers, formal and informal, likewise “‘epistol- 
ary altercation,’ did not bring about a settlement. For, 
while by the terms of a treaty signed in 1790 Spain was 
to restore all the lands of which England had been dis- 
possessed, in the discussions the Spanish commissioner 
maintained that England had been dispossessed of none; 
and suggested that a boundary line be established between 
British and Spanish possessions at Fuca Strait, in which 
case Spain would relinquish Nootka. 

The British commissioner did not concede the point and 
would agree to nothing short of unconditional surrender 
of Nootka—and there the matter stood. 

It was agreed that the question involved, having gone 
beyond those upon which they had been empowered to 
act, must be presented to their respective governments for 
a decision. 

The time for leaving Nootka was drawing near. Some 
of the Spanish vessel had sailed. On the 21st, a farewell 
dinner was given on board the Discovery, and on the 22d 
Bodega departed. 

The English ships, not then ready for sea, were put in 
condition and, on October 13, all three, together, began 
the voyage southward. 


The Sutil and Mexicana were the avant couriers, putting 
in at Monterey on September 22. 
On October 9, the Activa, bringing Bodega y Cuadra 


and flying his pennant, came into port, and, later in the © 


month, the Aranzazu arrived. 


When the news of Bodega’s arrival reached San Fran- © 


cisco, the Saturnina, which had brought up despatches from 


the viceroy for him and was awaiting his coming, joined — 
the other vessels at anchor in Monterey Bay; and from ~ 


a ae ee ee ee ee 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 317 


there despatches were forwarded, on the Horcasitas, to 
Fidalgo who had been left in charge at Nootka. 


On November 14, the Discovery was sighted from the 
lookout station at ‘“The Heads” and forthwith a man on 
horseback was sent to the Presidio of San Francisco to 
announce the approach of the British commissioner. 

The vessel entered the harbor at dusk. As the fort was 
passed, a salute was fired and returned, and anchor was 
dropped in Yerba Buena Cove. 

The Discovery was the first vessel other than Spanish 
to enter the harbor of San Francisco. It seems unlikely 
that, at this late day, even a wraith of the Golden Hind 
will appear to dispute this statement. 

Next day the comandante, Don Hermenegildo Sal, made 
his visite de cérémonie. 

Bodega y Cuadra, at Monterey, was notified of the 
arrival; and Sal was instructed to furnish such supplies as 
might be needed and to accept no pay but to charge every- 
thing to the Boundary Commission. 


The San Francisco establishments, somewhat neglected 
by the supply transports, and, also, because of a less favor- 
able location, were more poverty stricken than the others, 
yet nothing presidio or mission could do for the comfort 
or pleasure of the visitors was left undone. In fact, 
instructed to show attention, Don Hermenegildo, having 
had no experience—on this, the edge of the Spanish world 
—in the subtle differences in degree observed in meting out 
oficial courtesies, overdid; or, rather, he allowed more to 
be done than was advisable, of which, afterward, he heard 
much! For not only were the officers entertained at the 
presidio and mission, but Don Hermenegildo gave them the 
freedom of the country, so to speak, and permitted a little 
journey on horseback to be taken down the San Francisco 
peninsula to Mission Santa Clara de Asis. 


378 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


History is reticent as to just who planned the excursion 
—but it is somewhat significant that the visitors, escorted 
by Sergeant Amador and a guard, alone participated in it. 
Making the excuse that there were despatches to be 
attended to, Sal delicately endeavored to put a stop to it 
by not going; and Padre Landaeta, who was to have been 
of the party, was indisposed. 

Nothing in the Voyage suggests that these hints were 
perceived; if they were, they were disregarded, for, on the 
20th, Captain Vancouver and seven of his officers mounted 
fleet-footed horses and, according to the custom of the coun- 
try, he tells us, ‘‘sat out, attended by a drove of spare 
horses, more than double the number of our party... .” 


Their ride took them among golden sand dunes over- 
trailed with shining green yerba buena, whose spicy fra- 
grance rose at the touch of the horses’ hoofs. All about 
were scrub oaks, gnarled and bent by the winds of the sea. 
Tall lupines, with perhaps, here and there, a belated pale 
yellow spike of bloom, brushed their horses’ flanks. 

In front, rising high, two peaks, wisped with fog, over- 
looked Dolores, nestling in the valley. The mission passed, 
San Bruno hills left behind, a gallop across the Llano de 
los Robles took them beyond the Arroyo de San Mateo. 
Live oaks and madrovos were overhead, but the sentinel, 
the Palo Alto, was still farther on. 


At noon a stop was made at a beautiful spot, so beautiful, 
indeed, that they left it reluctantly, Vancouver says, who 
writes of it charmingly; but, in the midst of his delightful 
description, referring to the repast provided, and partaken 
of in the open, he adds—the inner man is reminiscent— 
“with some grog we had brought from the ship, (spirits 
and wine being scarce articles in this country) we all made a 
most excellent meal; ... .” 

After a brief period of rest ‘‘a fresh supply ot cavalry 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 379 


being selected from the drove of horses,” they mounted and 
_ resumed their journey. Many leagues had yet to be trav- 
eled which, one after the other, were left behind. Dusk 
found them still on the road, but “soon after the night 
closed in” they reached their destination. Made welcome 
by the padres, the next was an interesting day; and on the 
22d they were back at the presidio, enthusiastic over their 
outing. 

Finding the Chatham at anchor in the bay, preparations 
_ for departure began. As, according to orders, no pay had 
been accepted for supplies furnished: vegetables, eggs, poul- 
try, sheep, and cows, Captain Vancouver presented—besides 
a hogshead each of rum and wine, to be divided between 
the missions at Dolores and Santa Clara and the Presidio 
of San Francisco—various utensils and implements, for, he 
says, in substance, that, except food, the Spaniards there 
lacked almost everything. 

The Discovery and Chatham sailed on the 25th, and on 
the next day joined the Dedalus in the port of Monterey. 

The Discovery and Chatham remained fifty days, unload- 
ing, repairing, and reloading; but the Dedalus was made 
ready for sea, furnished with supplies, and sent on her way 
in December, to New South Wales, with a load of cattle. 

A tent was erected on the beach for astronomical observa- 
tions; and there was ample opportunity for research work 
of many kinds. Gayety was, however, the order of the day, 
something being constantly planned and done for the pleas- 
ure of the visitors. At San Carlos, besides dining frugally 
with the friars, they were onlookers at a demonstration 
by the Indians of killing deer by stratagem. One al fresco 
affair was given at the gardens of the presidio “situated 
at a pleasant distance for an excursion”’ (Vancouver). 

What promised to be a delightful return for this appre- 
ciated hospitality was given on board the Discovery with 
disappointing results, for many of the guests were overcome 
by mal de mer and had to be taken ashore. 


380 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


‘The late inconvenience ... in consequence of the 
ship’s motion” was the reason for a dinner given by the 
English commander at their ‘encampment on shore’ fol- 
lowed in the evening by a display of fireworks, and the 
entertainment “concluded by a dance and supper... ” 
(ibid.). 

And so the hours sped and light-heartedly they enjoyed 
themselves, English officers and Spanish Californians. 


The most amicable relations appear to have existed and 
much good-fellowship. Vancouver arranged with Bodega 
to have Broughton of the Chatham return to England via 
San Blas and Mexico; and Bodega delayed his own 
departure that he might put him on his way. Some of 
Vancouver’s men had deserted, one being his armorer, and, 
the time for departure approaching, the deserter was 
replaced by the only smith at the presidio. The Spanish 
commissioner again refused payment for supplies furnished 
and again the British commissioner made such gifts as he 
could. 

On January 15, 1793, the two British and three of 
the Spanish ships hauled up their anchors and all sailed 
away. 


In March of the same year, Don Juan Francisco de la 
Bodega y Cuadra died. He was a gentleman of the Order 
of Santiago—caballero del Orden de Santiago—and one 
of the ablest officers of his time in the service of New 
Spain. He was born at Lima, Peru. 


Arrillaga was a man of fine character and ability—who 
took himself modestly but his responsibilities as interino, 
seriously—and he did not in the least like the way his orders 
had been interpreted. Nor was his uneasiness lessened “by 
an order from the viceroy dated November 24, 1792, to 


~~ ee eS ae ae ee ae 


ee 


4 
4 
i 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 381 


be on his guard against English ships, and especially to 
prevent the weakness of the Spanish establishments from 
becoming known to foreigners’ (Bancroft). 

The “weakness of the Spanish establishments’”—at that 
time, in Alta California, about their largest asset—was 
already quite well known to foreigners, and had been com- 
mented upon freely by Captain Vancouver. 

With neither a sufficient force nor armaments with which 
to resist an attack, this order of November 24 was, in itself, 
disconcerting—without other complications. 

Governor Arrillaga did not wait to arrive upon the scene 
of the late indiscretions, but, on his way northward, sent a 
letter to Sal, reproving him for having permitted the excur- 
sion to Santa Clara. 

Sal, by that time aware that he had mismanaged, grace- 
fully and regretfully acknowledged himself in the wrong— 
but added that nothing short of the removal of the horses 
could have prevented the affair; that both he and Padre 
Landaeta had tried to dissuade Captain Vancouver, but 
had only incurred his displeasure. 

Orders followed, of different dates, giving Sal the exact 
length—and breadth—to which he was to go in the future 
in the role of a reception committee of one. 


From time to time, during the early part of 1793, the 
presence of English vessels—now here, now there—causing 
some uneasiness, was reported to the governor, who trans- 
mitted the information to the viceroy. 

There were too many English vessels about. England 
was somewhat overrepresented in California waters. 

The viceroy, the Conde de Revilla Gigedo, was fully 
aware of the unprotected condition of Alta California and 
mindful of it besides; and, in February, 1793, wrote to the 
governor that the four presidios were to be strengthened, 
some artillery and other things having been ordered, and 
that the port of Bodega was to be occupied. 


382 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


Arrillaga’s report to him on Alta California defenses— 
or defenselessness—is dated July 16 of the same year. 

Meantime, an important report, under date of April 12, 
had been despatched to Spain by the viceroy, giving a full 
yet general explanation of conditions and urging the occu- 
pation of Bodega. He did not favor further extension of 
Spanish dominions on the northwest coast, but advocated 
conservation of territory already acquired and prevention 
of the too close approach of foreign powers—such as would 
be the case should the English plan of making the Bay of 
San Francisco the boundary line between Spanish and Eng- 
lish possessions be adopted. For that reason, Bodega 
should be occupied at once as an outpost, and then Nootka 
—or any place south of it, north of Bodega—might be 
given up without detriment, provided there was no open- 
ing from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 

Another report from the viceroy, dated December 27, 
included a full report on the missions and the mission 
system. 


Returning in the spring to the northwest coast from the 
Sandwich Islands, whither he had gone after leaving Mon- 
terey in January of the same year, 1793, Captain Vancouver 
records (as may be seen in his Voyage) under date of 
‘Thursday [May] 2. . .. At noon we had reached the 
latitude only of 41° 2’. The land was in sight, but was 
so covered with haze, that its parts could not be distinctly 
discerned. ‘The northerly wind soon returned; with this 
we stood for the land, and fetched it a few miles to the 
southwest of Rocky point; just at the spot discovered by 


the Spaniards in Sen™ Quadra’s expedition . . . in the year 
1775, which they named Porto de la Trinidad.” 

And we read under date of “Sunday 5. ... In an ex- 
cursion made by Mr. Menzies... he found . . . the cross 


which the Spaniards had erected on their taking possession 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 383 


of the port; and though it was in a certain state of decay, 
it admitted of his copying the following inscription: 
CAROLUS III. DEI. G. HYSPANIARUM. REX. The 
identity of the porto de la Trinidada therefore cannot be 
MU Dted es aiid. 

Alta California was New Albion to Captain George Van- 
couver and consistently he calls it so, despite the fact that 
Spain had long been in possession—and Sir Francis Drake 
a very long time dead. 


The Discovery sailed north from Trinidad, but on the 
19th of the following October, at seven o’clock in the eve- 
ning, anchored in the Bay of San Francisco. Vancouver 
writes: ‘“‘We were soon hailed from the shore, upon which 
a boat was dispatched thither, and immediately returned 
with our civil and attentive friend Sen™ Sal; who, in addition 
to the offers of his services and hospitality, gratified us by 
communicating . . . thestate of Europe, ... which... 
had long been an object of our most anxious curiosity. 
After supper Sen™ Sal retired to the shore, and the next 
morning I received from him two letters; the one request- 
ing, in an official form, that I would acquaint him in writing 
of our arrival . . . of the supplies we should want, and 
of the time I intended to remain . . . in order that he 
might immediately communicate the same to the governor 
of the province; the other stating that . . . no individual 
could . . . come on shore, but for . . . wood and water, 
excepting myself and one officer, . . . who might pass to 
the Presidio, where I should be received . . . as on our 
former visit.” 

Captain Vancouver, although comparatively a young man 
—about thirty-five years old—was quite distinguished and 
was, at that moment, in command of an expedition sent 
out for scientific research and exploration, under royal 
orders, and this rebuff by way of greeting shocked him. 

He says: ‘“These restrictions were of a nature so unex- 


384 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


pected, ungracious, and degrading, that I could not but 
consider them as little short of a dismission from St. Fran- 
cisco... . And, further, that he “was left in the 
greatest perplexity to account for a reception so totally 
different” from that which had formerly been accorded 
him and after the letters, received in reply to his letter of 
thanks, with which the viceroy of New Spain had honored 
him. 

He completely exonerates ‘“‘Sen™ Sal,” but it is manifest 
that he considers ‘‘a captain . . . named Arrillaga” the 
person responsible for the humiliation and inconvenience 
to which he is being subjected. 


When the Chatham, which had been exploring Bodega 
Bay, arrived, both ships unfurled their sails and, on the 
24th, left the chilly official atmosphere of San Francisco. 
Just outside ‘“The Heads,” they were joined by the 
Dedalus returning from across the ocean. After experi- 
encing very unpleasant weather, the three put in and came 
to anchor in the Bay of Monterey. 

Omitting details, now ensued a repetition of the San 
Francisco episode, but more difficult, for here to be dealt 
with in propria persona was the offensive “captain. . . 
named Arrillaga,’”’ and no kindly “Sen Sal” to throw salt 
on the fire. | 

After an interview with Governor Arrillaga, in which 
Captain Vancouver says he was not allowed to touch upon 
the object of his visit, he presented in writing, as requested, 
a full statement explaining the character of his expedition, 
and stating that the object of his visit was to overhaul and 
repair his ships, transfer stores, give his men needed exer- 
cise and recreation on land, and to make astronomical 
observations. With this he enclosed a letter from the 
viceroy to him, dated February 18, 1793, in part as fol- 
lows: “‘ ‘I am glad that as you say in your letter of Jan. 13th 
of this year all the subjects of His Majesty under my orders 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 385 


and residing in the regions of New Orleans (sic) of this 
America where you have been have treated you with the 
greatest hospitality and friendship’’’ (Bancroft, note). 

The tenor of Governor Arrillaga’s reply, the restrictions 
imposed, the haste urged, so incensed Captain Vancouver 
that we find recorded in the Voyage: “On due consideration 
of all these circumstances, [I declined any further corre- 
spondence with, or accepting the incommodious assistance 
proffered by, Sen™ Arrillaga; and determined, after finish- 
ing our investigation of these shores, to retire to the Sand- 
wich islands, where I had little doubt that the uneducated 
inhabitants of Owhyhee, or its neighbouring isles, would 
cheerfully afford us that accommodation which had been 
unkindly denied us at St. Francisco and Monterrey.” 

He had returned whence he had taken him, the armorer 
he had borrowed to replace his own who had deserted; 
but his deserters he had thought would be delivered up 
to him at Monterey were, after many and varied experi- 
ences, just then at San Blas. 

On November 5, without taking on wood or water or 
supplies prepared for him—evidently in high dudgeon— 
Vancouver departed. 

Passing on southward, the various points were named 
by him in honor of his friends in Alta California: Point 
Sal (of course), Point Argtello, two for the padre presi- 
dente: Point Fermin and Point Lasuén—but it is not 
recorded that he named one in honor of the gobernador 
interino, Don José Joaquin de Arrillaga. 

Suspecting that back of officially-given reasons for his 
presence, Vancouver wished to investigate Alta California 
defenses, Governor Arrillaga had issued to the coman- 
dantes, while the English vessels were still in port, an order 
in which he said: “‘ ‘I have offered all the aid they need to 
undertake their voyage; therefore if they touch at any of 
the ports under the pretext of getting food or water their 
request is to be denied, and with politeness they are to be 


386 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


made acquainted with the orders that require them to 
retire’? (Bancroft, note). 

Certainly that was definite enough in itself, but attached 
was a reservadisimas—very confidential—communication, 
unsigned and undated, seemingly from the viceroy to the 
governor, going further: limiting intercourse to urgent need 
and relief demanded by the law of nations. 

At Santa Barbara, where the governor’s orders had not 
yet been received, Vancouver was in reality allowed no 
greater privileges than at San Francisco and Monterey, but, 
in some way, Goycoechea, the comandante, smoothed his 
ruffled feathers and he was pleased with his reception. ‘The 
friars were very kind. Padre Santa Maria came up from 
San Buenaventura with a flock of sheep and as many vege- 
tables as twenty pack mules could bring. He was taken 
back in state on board the Discovery, and Vancouver spent 
a day with him at the mission. 

San Diego was reached on the 27th, these being the first 
foreign vessels to enter the harbor. Arrillaga’s instructions 
had been received, but both the new comandante, Lieuten- 
ant Antonio Grajera, of the Espana Dragoons, who had 
arrived and assumed office on the 1gth of the previous 
month, and the former comandante, Don José de Zuniga, 
who had been promoted to a captaincy and ordered to 
Tucson, Sonora, but was still at the presidio, were very 
considerate. Orders were carried out so tactfully that no 
offense was given and, later on, Vancouver named Point 
Grajera, below San Diego, and Point Zuniga, on the lower 
coast, in their honor. 

Some packages which the English commander was 
anxious to forward to San Blas and Mexico were taken 
charge of for him; and the latest news, brought by a 
courier on his way to Monterey, was given him. His 
sojourn was happily rounded out by the arrival of Padre 
Presidente de Lasuén, who regretted there was not time 
for fresh vegetables to be sent down from San Juan Capis- 


a a ee eee ee 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 387 


trano, from which mission he had come. Cordial relations 
between the two were still further strengthened by the gift 
from Vancouver to Lasuén of a fine barrel organ for the 
church at Mission San Carlos, where, during his former 
visit, he had been so kindly made welcome. 

On December 9, Vancouver again left the North Ameri- 
can coast for a voyage across the Pacific. He had received, 
as yet, no news of the outcome in the Nootka matter. 


Under date of February 28, 1794, following the depar- 
ture of the English vessels, the viceroy approved Arrillaga’s 
policy and desired it continued. (At the same time, be 
it understood, friendly relations with Vancouver were to be 
maintained. ) 

On June 10 of the same year, a royal order, dated 
March 25, 1793, was forwarded, granting shelter to Eng- 
lish vessels in Spanish ports. This was followed on the 
next day by a communication from the viceroy again approv- 
ing Arrillaga’s policy, ordering it continued, and instructing 
that comandantes were to prevent examination of the coun- 
try (a tap on Sal’s knuckles), and, also, the shipment of 
cattle to foreign ports (this for Argiiello). 

Thus does Diplomacy blow hot and cold! 


XXXI 


Lieutenant Colonel Don Diego de Borica, adjutant 
inspector of the presidios in Chihuahua, a native of Vitoria, 
in the Basque province of Alava, Spain, and a knight of 
the Order of Santiago, was appointed early in the year 
1794, governor, political and military, and comandante 
inspector of the Californias. 

On May 14 of that year, Borica took office at Loreto; 
and, on the same day, despatched instructions to Arrillaga 
to continue acting as governor until he reached the capital. 
He had arrived from San Blas a day or so before, and 
was accompanied by his wife, Dona Maria Magdalena de 
Urquides, the possessor of large estates, and by a young 
daughter, Dona Josefita. And, in their train, came a valet 
and a maid, a negro page and a man cook. 

Arrillaga had already written a short account of his 
administration for the viceroy and the customary lengthy 
document for his successor. In fact, he had set his house 
in order, as interino, and was ready to depart therefrom. 
He now wrote the viceroy that, in view of work awaiting 
him, it was important that he should return to Baja Cali- 
fornia as soon as possible. 


On July 12 of this year, 1794, Revilla Gigedo was suc- 
ceeded as Viceroy of New Spain by the Marqués de 
Branciforte. 


Being very capable, Arrillaga had been expected to turn 
existing confusion in presidial accounts into something more 
nearly akin to order and this had received first considera- 
tion. But he soon found there were other matters requiring 
immediate attention. Presidio buildings, notwithstanding 


[ 388 ] 


—e 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 389 


the work done by Don Pedro Fages, were in a deplorable 
condition, yet this was relatively of small importance in 
view of another situation confronting him. 

So far as anything remotely approaching ability to resist 
attack, Alta California, the outpost of New Spain, was 
in a state of what amounted to absolute defenselessness. 
Without delay and with unremitting energy, Arrillaga 
attacked the problem and was soon deep in preparations 
for building a fort at San Francisco. 

As there was no mason to be found among such artisans 
as they had, he pressed into his service a rover, a journey- 
man with some knowledge of the trade, who had drifted 
into Monterey the year before, and work began on the 
Castillo de San Joaquin, at the most northerly point of 
the San Francisco peninsula (Fort Point). He was his 
own architect and builder; and from that time until he was 
relieved as interino, the work of improving the defenses of 
San Francisco went on. 


The new governor did not arrive for some time and 
evidently Don José Joaquin became very impatient, for 
when the news came that the propietario was nearing San 
Diego, he waited no longer but, between the 16th and 22d 
of September, set out, traveling rapidly southward, meeting 
Borica about the middle of October at San Juan Capistrano. 
There, the former interino and the propietario spent four 
days in close consultation, Governor Borica resuming his 
journey northward on October 17. 


Arrillaga had been interino two years and four months; 
and, upon arriving at Loreto, again took up his duties as 
lieutenant governor. 


Recrossing the Pacific from the Sandwich Islands, the 
British commissioner, Captain George Vancouver, reached 


390 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


Nootka in September, 1794. General José Manuel de 
Alava, who had succeeded Bodega y Cuadra as commis- 
sioner and, also, as comandante at San Blas, was already 
there. Both were without instructions; but when—one day 
following another—the middle of October came around 
and they were still without those Alava was to have received 
before the 15th, the two commissioners and their retinues 
sailed for Monterey on the Princesa, Discovery, and 
Chatham. All arrived early in November, the last to make 
the port, the Princesa, dropping anchor on the 7th. 

Argtello was found in temporary command. Arrrillaga 
had gone and Borica had not yet come. Of this interim, 
Vancouver, who had been wounded to the quick, whose 
pride, official and personal, had been offended, writes: 
‘“Sen™ Arrillago having been ordered to some inferior 
establishment, had resigned his authority at this place, and 
. . . Don Diego de Borica had been appointed some time 
since to the government of this province, and was now daily 
expected at Monterrey.” 

Argtello was very cordial, offering every civility, but 
Vancouver asked only for such things as wood and water 
and some fresh supplies, deeming it more respectful to 
submit other requests to the governor himself. 

No official communication awaited either commissioner. 

The deserters from the Chatham and Dedalus were 
there; and a letter from the former viceroy, Revilla Gigedo, 
being held, under instructions from him, for Captain Van- 
couver, was delivered. And of this he says: ‘It was dated 
on the 20th of October, 1793, about the time when we first 
felt the influence of Sen™ Arrillago’s disinclination towards 
our little squadron.” 

This letter was addressed to him at Monterey but, should 
he not return to that port, was to be transmitted to him 
in England. It brought him news of Broughton’s safe 
arrival in Madrid, and was, throughout, kindly in tone. 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 391 


All this leads him on and he binds up his still unhealed feel- 
ings with the thought that the letters, couched in terms 
of friendship, with which the viceroy had _ previously 
honored him, had meant more than the perfunctory polite- 
ness implied by Arrillaga’s behavior. And, in this connec- 
tion, the point stressed the year before: that a second visit 
had been neither expected nor arranged for, bobs up, for, 
after putting two and two together, he sums up with: ‘‘that 
the viceroy did expect that I should make, at least, a second 
visit to Monterrey, was evidently proved by the deserters 
having been sent hither.” 


The gobernador propietario, Don Diego de Borica, 
reached the capital on the gth, he himself says,—on the 
11th, according to Vancouver. ‘Therefore, it is difficult 
to invest the announcement of his arrival with the proper 
dignity. 


It is not possible to steer a straight course through Don 
Diego’s dates. In each of three letters, he gives a different 
date as that of his arrival at Loreto: May 11, 12, and 13! 
This is an excellent place to note that Bancroft’s and Van- 
couver’s dates do not always coincide. But, in working out 
historical itineraries, one finds that a seeming difference in 
dates is not always a real one. 

Mixed dates, troublesome even when unimportant, are 
not unusual; and finding a date in one history not the same 
for the same event as that given in another does not nec- 
essarily argue, in either case, a careless historian. 


No news had arrived from England for Vancouver, when 
information, contained in despatches received by Alava on 
the 11th, was shared with him, and in this way he learned 
that “‘no further altercation would take place” and that 


392 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


the Nootka matter had been adjusted “in an amicable 
way.” And, he was further informed, special commis- 
sioners for disoccupation had been appointed and he had 
been relieved. 


At the proper time and in the most approved European 
fashion, the English officers, in the wake of their com- 
mander, paid their respects to the new governor. An 
entente cordiale was established and, during their entire 
stay, Don Diego de Borica, a man of no little cultiva- 
tion, proved a charming host—and, also, something of a 
diplomat. 

For one thing, the English visitors were kept very busy 
being entertained, partly, perhaps, to turn their attention 
away from things it were best they should not see—but had 
seen, for, long since, Vancouver had noted that should “the 
ambition of any civilized nation tempt it to seize on these 
unsupported posts, they could not make the least resist- 
alice 4 
The lively spirit for investigation previously displayed 
was tactfully restrained. And, not in this connection does 
Vancouver state that: ‘The profound secrecy which the 
Spanish nation has so strictly observed . . . in this hemi- 
sphere, naturally excites, in the strongest manner, a curi- 
Deity eee 

Writing of attentions of every possible kind, he adds 
that he had so much business to attend to and had been 
for months past in such wretched health that he was rarely 
able to take part in any of the gayeties. 

The situation, strained the year before to the breaking 
point, was marvelously well handled—strictly in accordance 
with Spanish policy, but with a wisely liberal interpretation 
thereof. Furthermore, it is apparent that in the exercise 
of his duty, the new governor was thoroughly enjoying 
himself, for, in one of his letters, he writes that, of the 
group then at Monterey: Vancouver, Alava, Puget, and 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 393 


Fidalgo, none is more than his match “ ‘before a dozen of 
Rhine wine, port or Madeira’”’ (Bancroft). 


Vancouver remained at Monterey while completing 
reports and charts and having copies prepared to send to 
England via San Blas. Meanwhile, overhauling and refit- 
ting the vessels for the long homeward voyage had been 
in progress, and supplies had been taken on. 

Broughton not having returned, Captain Vancouver 
appointed Lieutenant Peter Puget to the command of the 
Chatham. 

All being in readiness, after good-bys had been said and 
many an ddios, on Tuesday, December 2, the expedition 
took its final departure from Monterey. 

The return voyage was made around Cape Horn, and 
the Thames was reached on October 20 of the following 


year, 1795. 


George Vancouver, famous as an explorer, died at 
Petersham, Surrey, England, on May 10, 1798. 

Shortly after his return from the northwest coast of 
America, he began the preparation, for publication, of a 
narrative of the voyage, but before the task was finished, 
Death stayed his hand. The work was completed by his 
brother, John Vancouver, assisted by Captain Peter Puget, 
and published under the title already given in these pages. 


An agreement for the mutual abandonment of Nootka 
was signed at Madrid on January 11, 1794, by Spain and 
England, represented by Prime Minister Godoy and Baron 
St. Helens, British ambassador to the court of Spain. 

Later, commissioners, General Alava for Spain and 
Lieutenant Sir Thomas Pierce for England, were appointed 
to carry out officially, at Nootka, an elaborate abandon- 
ment program which had been agreed upon in detail. 

On November 20 of that year, Pierce landed at Vera 


394 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


Cruz, going by way of the capital to San Blas, sailing from 
there on the Activa, commanded by Lieutenant Cosme 
Bertodano, on January 13, 1795, and arriving at Monterey 
a month later. 

Working a carefully considered way through a maze of 
direct contradictions, one finds that Alava joined Pierce 
on board the Activa, sailing for Nootka from Monterey 
on March 1. . 

On the date agreed upon, March 23, 1795, a declaration — 
and counter-declaration were signed at Nootka by the com- ~ 
missioners. Flags were lowered, those of England and of 
Spain; or, one flag was raised and the other lowered, but ~ 
which went up or which came down is a problem which ~ 
seems to have remained unsolved. At all events, Nootka 
was abandoned. 

We read in a report of the American Historical Associa- 
tion (1904): “After the prescribed ceremonies had been 
performed, both the Spanish and English deserted the place. — 
Neither nation ever occupied it. Nootka is still inhabited — 
by Indians” (Manning). 

What one gained and the other lost or what one lost — 
and the other gained would be hard to say. If behind cer- — 
tain amicable arrangements, of doubtful import, between — 
the two nations, respecting the northwest coast of America, — 
never taken advantage of, and the privileges accorded © 
British vessels in North American waters, there were others 
not at the time divulged, they seem to have remained state — 
secrets. But, putting all that to one side, one fact stands — 
out: Spain had relinquished for all time her erstwhile — 
sovereignty of the northwest coast of America and the © 
waters appertaining. | 

The time had long since saeeea when the Pope of Rome 
could divide a world in twain—even a new world—and the — 
gift of one half to Portugal and one half to Spain remain | 
intact. ‘ 
The treaty of 1790, the ambiguity of certain of its — 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 395 


articles, reasons for and the steps taken leading to the 
adjustment of 1795, may be found set forth to suit almost 
any taste—dispassionately or according to race and under- 
standing—but the whys, wherefores, and therefores have 
no place here. 


News that Spain and France were at war reached Mon- 
terey in October, 1793. Contributions asked for by the 
viceroy were sent but were returned and distributed to the 
donors. In 1795, Alta California was again called upon 
to contribute, and the appeal was published by the governor, 
who headed the list with one thousand pesos, calling upon 
officers, friars, neophytes, and settlers to assist. From all 
classes, save one, came a, generous answer, until the little 
fund amounted to three thousand, eight hundred and eighty- 
one pesos. 

The friars, as usual, pleaded poverty; and, as Francis- 
cans, they were obliged to be poor. They did not consider 
the missions and mission possessions theirs, but merely a 
trust. 

As padre presidente, Lasuén received no stipend, nor had 
Serra. The padre presidente, being a supernumerary, did 
not get even the four hundred pesos a year allotted the 
friars regularly in charge of the missions. It has been 
repeatedly stated by their chroniclers that these stipends, 
as money, were not sent to Alta California but were 
expended by the College of San Fernando in the purchase 
of a few necessary articles for the friars and the rest for 
their missions and the neophytes. Sometimes they got 
neither the stipend nor its equivalent. 

When the Dominicans took over the Peninsula missions, 
Padre Lasuén had received nothing for five years! He had 
nothing left, not even thread with which to mend his gar- 
ments and scarcely any garments left to mend. In his 
letters, he had ceased to ask calmly. There is a frenzied 


396 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


pathos in his appeals, in the name of charity, for something 
wherewith he may be clothed! Arriving in Alta California 
in all that was left of his tatters, he was given a garment 
by one and another who could ill spare it themselves. He 
said that the Indians liked him in Baja California because 
his almost garmentless condition was so nearly like their 
own. 


War with France gave a little impetus to coast defenses. 

Colonel Don Miguel Costansé, a member of the war 
board, regarded the long coast line as a difficulty not to be 
overcome, and forts in distant provinces, with no home 
resources, as almost useless. This he set forth in a report 
of October 17, 1794, and urged settlement and commerce. 

Early in 1795, Governor Borica asked for reénforce- — 
ments. In July of the same year, a committee, composed ~ 
of Costansdé, Fidalgo, and Sanchez, recommended batteries — 
and gunners, but only as a protection against corsairs— — 
protection against a squadron being in their opinion imprac- — 
ticable. They also recommended that vessels for coasting — 
service be furnished. And, on the 25th of the same month, 
Viceroy Branciforte wrote, declaring it impossible to fortify — 
and defend the whole coast against superior forces. . 

Orders in regard to foreign vessels were promulgated; — 
but seldom did a foreign vessel arrive. The Phenix, Eng- 
lish from Bengal, touching at Santa Barbara in August, was — 
the only one in 1795 to experiment on with the orders — 
issued; and she was harmless, taking on a few supplies and ~ 
departing whither she was bound. On board was a lad © 
who wished to remain and “‘become a Christian,” left by — 
the captain with Comandante Goycoechea, who, writing of — 
him to Governor Borica, said his name was ‘‘Bostones,” — 
that he was a pilot, a carpenter, and of good parentage. 
He did not remain in Alta California to “become a Chris- 
tian,” but was sent on the Aranzazu to San Blas. In some — 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 397 


oficial communication, it was written: ‘“ “This Englishman 
is a native of Ireland and his parents live now in Boston!’ ” 
(Bancroft, note). His name was Joseph O’Cain. 

One of the foreign vessels to arrive in 1796 was English, 
the Providence, under Captain Broughton, who had been 
on the coast with Vancouver, bringing instruments that had 
been intended for Bodega y Cuadra. The viceroy’s order 
to make reprisals on all English ships was of a later date, 
November 30, and was not received in Alta California 
until the next year. Captain Broughton—leaving the 
instruments which were paid for by the governor and after- 
ward sent to San Blas—took on some supplies and departed. 

Orders issued as to foreign vessels usually differed little 
from those which had preceded them, but occasionally 
instructions as to just how it would be possible to carry them 
out in case they had to be—which, fortunately, did not 
happen—would have been comforting to the recipients. 
One communication to Governor Borica directed that large 
warships, able to seize San Diego, were not to be permitted 
to enter the harbor! 

The Otter, sailing from Boston—the first vessel flying 
the flag of the United States to anchor in a port of Alta 
California—entered the harbor of Monterey on October 
29, her papers properly signed and countersigned, and sailed 
away again on November 6, leaving indignation in her 
wake. She was commanded by Captain Ebenezer Dorr, 
who asked to leave some English sailors, stowaways on his 
vessel. This was refused, but he left them anyway, landing, 
at the point of a pistol, ten men and a woman on the beach 
at night. They proved so useful and industrious, however, 
that the governor would have liked them as permanent 
settlers, but orders came to send the foreigners to San Blas 
by the first vessel. 


They were convicts from Botany Bay, whom Dorr had 
taken on board at Port Saxon without knowing it. They 


398 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


were giving him no end of trouble, which, to him, was 
an excuse for this breach of international courtesy. 


Also in 1796, reénforcements, Catalan Volunteers and 
artillerymen—almost a hundred men—began arriving in 
March and April, followed by others the succeeding spring, 
and were distributed where they could be most effectually 
used. Twenty-five Catalans were assigned to San Francisco, 
where Lieutenant Colonel Pedro Alberni became the 
comandante. Twenty-five were sent to San Diego under 
Lieutenant José Font. The artillery detachment arriving 
under Sergeant José Roca was also distributed. 

Among arrivals was Don Alberto de Cordoba, lieutenant 
of engineers, who, besides reporting on defenses, was to 
make a general map of Alta California. In the course of 
his tour of inspection, he found that neither in the north 
nor the south could any sort of resistance to attack be made. 
As a determining factor in some of his recommendations, 
was the impossibility of fortifying the tremendously long 
coast line. He therefore advised more troops on land, and 
one or more cruising vessels to patrol the coast. On Jan- 
uary 20, 1797, Cordoba’s first report was sent to the 
viceroy. 

Borica hung his hope of salvation from foreign foes, — 
while waiting for more effective protection, on the possi- — 
bility that the utter defenselessness of the province was not 
known to the world at large. 


XXXIT 


Peace having been concluded with France, Spain and 
England were now at war. 

Beginning in March, 1797, many alarms were sounded 
on the Alta California coast. 

English vessels were ordered seized! Comandantes 
were instructed to redouble precautions. Every one who 
could shoulder a musket was drilled, and, on Sundays, target 
practice was the order of the day. 

The padres were given to understand that more than 
prayers would, in this instance, be required, and that, should 
they be needed to assist in the defense of the province, their 
neophytes would have to be forthcoming. 

The Indians were gathered together and the horrors of 
an invasion by the English were depicted, some apprehen- 
sion being felt lest the beads and trinkets given them by 
the visitors of that nationality might possibly have shaken 
their loyalty and lead to a betrayal of the Spaniards. 

Lookouts to give warning of the approach of the enemy, 
and sentinels where a landing might be effected, were 
posted. 


There had been a long drought—several bad years— 
and strict economy with all provisions was ordered, for the 
coming of the transports might be cut off and then no pro- 
visions could arrive! 

But, with sails unfurled to the wind, like a great white 
bird floating on the water with wings outspread, the Con- 
cepcion was sighted off the coast in April, and in May came 
the Princesa, both with supplies as usual. At least, larders 
would be well filled for some time to come. 


[ 399 ] 


400 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


Through the summer, all was quiet. Gradually, fears 
were allayed. They were so far away from anywhere, it 
might be that nothing would happen, after all! But—in 
October a report arrived from Baja California, and with 
it consternation, that a fleet of perhaps sixteen vessels had 
been sighted, heading for the north! 

One thrilling, terrible week followed before this was 
proved to be without foundation. Meantime, general 
orders had been issued by the governor to spread the news 
in all directions ‘‘a mata caballo [at horse-killing speed ]’’! 
And, to all the comandantes, the governor issued another 
and peremptory order that: should he be taken prisoner, 
the defense of California was to be continued by them, gov- 
erned by duty and circumstances; and that under no condi- 
tion whatsoever was any order purporting to come from 
him to be heeded! 

On December 17, a large warship did arrive off Santa 
Barbara, but she was Spanish, the Magallanes from Manila 
——Captain Espinosa—coming not to attack but to defend. 
Having found no foes on the coast, she proceeded on her 
way to Acapulco. 


On a beautiful moonlight night, in that year of grace, 
1797, San Diego Bay had been thoroughly surveyed by 
the English! This, however, was not known to the Alta 
Californians for several years. 


Don Alberto de Cordoba, a man of distinction in his 
profession, an ingeniero estraordinario, was, while in Alta 
California, to assist in founding not a pueblo, strictly 
speaking, but something far more ambitious: a villa. 

Services to be rendered by Cérdoba are outlined in a 
report of the royal tribunal of accounts, dated November 
18, 1795, in which the first definite statement in regard to 
the Villa de Branciforte, named in honor of the viceroy 
himself, was made. 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 401 


The famous Plan of Pitic, Sonora, was to be used—a 
plan expressly designed to be followed for other villas 
throughout the Provincias Internas. It called for four 
square leagues of land, laid out with regularity in streets 
and town lots; capable of being beautified and adapted to 
civic adornment; widening out into commons for the use 
of all the inhabitants; and once again widening out into 
pastures and cultivable land brought under a system of 
irrigation. Symmetry was to govern all; and due thought 
was to be given to sanitation and convenience. 

Government under the Pitic plan was vested in a 
comisionado and, with a population of thirty, an ayuntami- 
ento consisting of two ordinary alcaldes, six regidores, a 
sindico, and, in place of an habilitado, a town treasurer. 
The tenure of the land after four years became alienable, 
except to a church, monastery, or ecclesiastical community, 
on condition that the poblador was always equipped with 
arms and two horses and was ready to march against an 
enemy. : 

In 1795, Governor Borica had ordered pueblo sites 
sought for between Monterey and San Francisco. In May, 
1796, he, Alberni, and Cordoba traveled in company up 
and down the land, inspecting sites for the villa in pros- 
pect. In June, Governor Borica called for reports from 
the other two. Replies received from Alberni and Cérdoba 
are dated July 1 and 20 respectively, recommending a place 
fulfilling all requirements: near the sea, with facilities for 
export; having an abundance of water and rich soil, timber, 
stone, lime, and clay; and lying on the river San Lorenzo 
opposite Mission Santa Cruz. 

In reporting to the viceroy on August 4, Governor Borica 
was carried away by his enthusiasm and declared “the Santa 
Cruz site the best between Cape San Lucas and San Fran- 
cisco’ (Bancroft). 

Pitic was a garrisoned town, the Presidio of San Miguel 
de Horcasitas having been moved there; and, so far as 


402 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


was possible, Branciforte was to be garrisoned. Lieutenant 
Colonel Alberni, who had also been mentioned in the first 
report to the viceroy, was to be put in command. 

The pobladores, it was specified, were to be of a fine 
type. Borica had asked that four classes be sent: robust 
country people from cold or temperate climates, artisans, 
shipwrights, and, that advantage might be taken of the 
many whales in adjacent waters, a few sailors. 

On May 12, 1797, the Concepcion arrived with the first 
delegation of pobladores for the Villa de Branciforte, sev- 
enteen in number, nine of them men: a group of half naked, 
shivering—some of them diseased—individuals. They 
were not convicts but just undesirable citizens—a good rid- 
dance to Guadalajara from whence they hailed! 


The lack of suitable wives for those in the province seems 
to have disturbed Governor Borica, who evidently was loath 
to let even one eligible female escape. On November 19 
of the year before, he had directed “the commandant of 
San Francisco to try and prevail on Maria Simona Ortega, 
a widow, to remain in the country; for sooner or later some 
soldier or civilian will ask her hand in marriage” (ibid., 
note). 

Now in the new group were five bachelors! Governor 
Borica’s reaction to this not-to-be-countenanced state of 
affairs is shown in a note taken bodily from Bancroft and 
is interesting when one remembers the condition and class 
of citizens for whom he was demanding wives. ‘Sept. 17, 
1797, Borica to viceroy, wants good wives, strong young 
spinsters, especially for criminal settlers, since the padres 
objected to the native women marrying such husbands. 
Besides good health the girls must bring good clothes, so 
that they may go to church and be improved. A sine qua 
non of a California female colonist must be a serge petti- 
coat, a rebozo corriente, a linen jacket, two woollen shifts, 
a pair of stockings, and a pair of strong shoes.” In reply, 


a ee ee ee ee a, 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 403 


‘Jan. 25, 1798, viceroy says orders have been given to 
procure young, healthy, single women for the pobladores, 
but the task presents some difficulties” (bid., note). 

June 1, 1798, Borica registers more excitement and asks 
for one hundred women! Although this was a “‘free-for- 
all,’ there seem to have been no entries, and the attempt 
to get wives for the creatures that had been and were being 
sent to Alta California was unsuccessful. 


The new arrivals had been clothed but they must also 
be housed, and the Villa de Branciforte was not ready to 
receive them. 

Gabriel Moraga, the son of the founder of San Francisco, 
had been appointed comisionado, and, on May 26, was 
ordered to proceed to the site of the proposed villa and 
to install himself and family in small temporary huts, build- 
ing larger ones, also temporary, for the pobladores, pend- 
ing the arrival of “el eo) ”’ Cordoba, engaged on 
other matters. 

On July 17, Borica rated orders to Moraga in the mat- 
ter of the management of the villa, instructing him that: 
peace and harmony must prevail; there was to be no drunk- 
enness, no concubinage; neglect of public work was punish- 
able; mass must be attended on days of obligation (unless 
one preferred three days in the stocks) ; the rosary, recited 
in the guardhouse, must close the day; certificates of annual 
confession and communion and the observance of Lent must 
be forwarded; precautions, the greatest, must be taken to 
insure proper care of the settlers’ clothing, which they must 
not sell, and, if sold against orders, the sale would be void; 
on Sundays there was to be general inspection, and stolen 
articles were to be returned to owners; there was to be no 
communication whatever with ashe rancherias, by day 
or by night. 

On July 24, 1797, Governor Borica founded the Villa 
de Branciforte. In August, e/ ingeniero, who had arrived 


404 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


upon the scene, was busily engaged in surveying and getting 
everything under way, generally. An estimate of probable 
cost, asked for, was made by him, the amount required 
being between twenty-three and twenty-four thousand pesos. 
This was sent to the governor, who transmitted it to the 
viceroy. 

On October 24, Governor Borica ordered all work sus- 
pended—because of lack of funds—and activities at the 
villa came to a sudden halt! 

In November of that year, orders were issued by the 
viceroy recalling Cordoba. They were received by him in 
April of the next year, 1798, and in October el ingeniero 
was on his way to Mexico. 


The rest of the story of Branciforte need not be long in 
the telling and seems best told in the following sequence, 
lifted from excerpts given by Bancroft in a note taken from 
a series of translations, of which he speaks in high praise, 
by a Mr. Williams of Santa Cruz: 

‘Jan. 28, 1798, Borica to Moraga. Must teach the 
Guadalajarenos agriculture and strive against their natural 
laziness; treat them with charity and love, but punish grave 
faults and malicious failure to work. 

“Oct. 28th, Borica orders Moraga to inspect the ward- 
robe of settlers’ wives and report what is needed. 


‘Feb. 4, 1799, . - - . Moraga must go on with his 
duties, for his chance of promotion depends on it. : 
“April 3d, . . . [Borica will] hold Moraga responaitle 


for remissness of any settler in caring for his land. 

“May 12th, the settlers’ two years at $116 per year 
expire today. 

“Nov. 2186, Sal aches Moraga that Vallejo will super- 
sede him as comisionado. 

‘Dec. 31st, Sal assures Borica that Vallejo will perform 
his duties faithfully. .. . Settlers must not make pleas- 
ure trips to San José. 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 405 


‘Jan. 3, 1800, settlers in need of corn and beans. 

‘Feb. roth, Sal to Vallejo, at the end of 1799 the settlers 
owed the treasury $558; the appropriation for 1800 is 
$540, so that receiving nothing they would still be in debt. 
The delivery of cigarritos and other articles not rations 
and tools has been suspended. 

“Dec. 5th, governor to viceroy, the Branciforte settlers 
are a scandal to the country by their immorality, etc. They 
detest their exile, and render no service. Daily complaints 
of disorders. 

“Dec. 11th, . . . . The nine pobladores received in 
1800 rations at $60 each. 

Reading between the lines of orders, the duties expected 
of the comisionado must have been irksome. 

In that year, 1800, with a few changes in personnel, there 
were exactly the same number of inhabitants that had 
arrived in May, 1797. About eleven hundred bushels of 
wheat, maize, and beans were raised and the Brancifortians 


then had about five hundred head of stock. 


But gradually the Villa de Branciforte disappeared and, 
after comparatively a few years, did not exist even in the 
memory of man. 


XXXII 


Five new missions of the inner chain were in contempla- 
tion. All were to be in front of the Coast Range, back of 
the original missions and about equidistant between them. 
Locations had, in a general way, been decided upon, much 
of the necessary information having been collected by 
Sergeant Amador in his various explorations; but, in 
1794-5, journeys were also made by the padres from the 
different missions, escorted by guards, in order to further 
simplify the final selection of sites. General results, formu- 
lated by the padre presidente, were, under date of Janu- 
ary 12, 1796, submitted to the governor, and were included 
by him in a report to the viceroy despatched in February. 

In his report, Governor Borica stipulated that no more 
troops would be needed for the new foundations, the pres- 
ence of the Catalan Volunteers and of artillerymen making 
it now possible to supply from the troops at the presidios 
the necessary mission guards; and it might be that fewer 
guards would suffice at some of the original missions. 

A strong appeal was made to the government in the 
suggestion that by founding these new missions, the reduc- 
tion of all the natives might be brought about, in which 
case a saving of fifteen thousand pesos annually might be 
effected. 

The viceroy’s order to proceed was dated August 19, 
1796. And, on September 29, the guardian announced 
that he had detailed the missionaries for the new founda- 
tions. He protested, however, against decreasing the guard 
at any of the original missions. 

The viceroy’s orders were received by Governor Borica 
before the end of that year, 1796; and, on May 5 of the 


[ 406 ] 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 407 


following year, Padre Lasuén informed him that the friars 
would be on hand. The padre presidente said that it would 
be difficult for the missions already established to furnish 
sO many new missions at one time, but that he would do the 
best he could: Santa Clara, San Francisco, and San Carlos 
would be asked to take care of the two at the north; Santa 
Cruz must be excused, and it was doubtful whether Soledad 
could contribute. 


Ceremonies, in founding the California missions, were as 
nearly alike as circumstances permitted and, except for 
minor incidents and surroundings, a description of one 
would almost serve for all. Therefore, only a brief sum- 
mary of the founding of these five new ones is necessary. 


For Mission San José, the first to be founded, the 
“alameda,” so called, it is supposed, by Sergeant Amador, 
was decided upon. This place lay some seven or eight 
leagues north of Mission Santa Clara, but on the eastern 
side of the southern end of the bay and opposite the penin- 
sula of San Francisco. 

Except for recent explorations made by Sergeant Amador, 
none had been made in that region for nearly twenty years. 

The Indians were unfriendly. Nevertheless, in 1794, 
during a scarcity of food in that locality, a good time to 
make converts, the friars asked for an escort, in order to 
go among them and use the pressure of their necessities in 
conjunction with the usual allure of food, in plenty, at the 
missions, to draw them into the fold. This was thought 
too hazardous, and, as almost nothing was known of that 
part of the country, the comandante at San Francisco 
refused the request. But, in 1795, according to the records, 
Macario Castro, who, evidently, was not timorous, had a 
herd of mares in the alameda. 

Under orders from the governor, dated May 15, 1797, 
the comandante at San Francisco detailed Corporal 


408 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


Miranda and five soldiers as the guard for Mission San 
José. 

On June 11, Padre Presidente Lasuén, unassisted by 
other friars, founded the mission, returning the same day, 
with all who had accompanied him, to Mission Santa Clara. 

Sergeant Amador and his men then went back to the 
alameda and, by the 28th, on which day the friars for the 
new mission, Isidoro Barcenilla and Agustin Merino, 
arrived, so much had been done that it was thought the rest 
might be left to Corporal Miranda and the mission guard. 

Irascible and always at outs with Corporal Miranda, 
Padre Barcenilla kept things stirred up at that lonely spot. 
Writing to the comandante on September 27 of that first - 
year, he complains bitterly ‘“‘that the soldiers will not lend 
a hand even . . . where ‘the most barbarous Indian would 
not refuse his aid’’”’; and that ‘“‘Private Higuera does noth- 
ing but wag his tongue against such as assist the padres’; 
also that the corporal “is much changed and will not work 
even for pay.’’ Miranda said “that the padres were angry 
because the soldiers would not act as vaqueros” (Bancroft, 
note). 

The Indians were often threatening, but by the end of 
1797 there were thirty-three converts, increasing to two 
hundred and eighty-six by the end of 1800. Live stock, 
contributed by the northern missions, showed a good 
increase; and, during the three years, three thousand, nine 
hundred bushels, chiefly of wheat, had been garnered. 


Mission San Juan Bautista, situated between San Carlos 
and Santa Clara, was founded on June 24—San Juan’s 
Day—1797, by the padre presidente, assisted by Padres 
Catala and Martiarena, the latter, together with Padre 
Martinez, being assigned to this the second of the inner 
chain of missions to be established. 

Five men were detailed as the mission guard under com- 
mand of Corporal Ballesteros, whose orders were some- 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 409 


what less stringent than those formerly issued. More was 
left to his discretion in furnishing the friars with escorts; 
and, while it was not advisable, the absence of soldiers 
from the mission, overnight, was not absolutely forbidden. 

Corporal Ballesteros was so efficient that, although the 
governor's orders to the comandante at Monterey were 
dated May 18, by June 17, a church, a dwelling for the 
friars, a granary, and a guardhouse were all in readiness 
for the ceremonies on the 24th. 

By the end of the first year, there had been eighty-five 
baptisms; and by the end of the year 1800, six hundred 
and forty-one. In 1800, there were harvested two thovu- 
sand, seven hundred bushels of grain. 

The most important event chronicled in the early annals 
of San Juan was the great earthquake of the year 1800, 
beginning on the 11th of October and continuing, with 
sometimes six shocks in a day, until the 31st. On the 18th, 
the most severe occurred, cracking the buildings from top 
to bottom. The padres remained out of doors all night, 
sleeping in the carts belonging to the mission. 

The Indians said that such disturbances were not unusual 
in that region. 


For Mission San Miguel Arcangel, the third to be 
founded, a site was chosen between Missions San Antonio 
and San Luis Obispo. It was established on July 25 of 
the same year, 1797, by Padre Lasuén, assisted by Padre 
Sitjar, who remained. He was joined by Padre Horra, a 
newcomer, who succeeded in creating, during a very brief 
stay, a situation disconcerting in the extreme. 

At the end of 1800, three hundred and eighty-five persons 
had been baptized. The crop for the three years was three 
thousand, seven hundred bushels of grain. 


For the fourth mission, between San Buenaventura and 
San Gabriel, the Reyes rancho was selected and the house 


410 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


of the ranchero used as a dwelling for the missionaries. 
On September 8, 1797, Padre Lasuén, assisted by Padre 
Dumetz, founded Mission San Fernando Rey de Espana, 
named in honor of Ferdinand III of Spain, surnamed “The 
Saint,’ under whose rule Castile and Leon were united; who 
reigned from 1217-51, and was canonized in 1671 by Pope 
Clement X. . 

Padre Uria was detailed at this mission, to serve with 
Padre Dumetz. 

At the end of 1797, there were fifty-five neophytes; three 
hundred and ten at the end of 1800. 


Mission San Luis Rey de Francia, the fifth of the new 


missions of the inner chain, and the last of those to be 
founded, was named in honor of Louis IX of France, who 
reigned from 1226-70 and was canonized in 1297 by 
Pope Boniface VIII. It was dedicated on June 13, 1798, 
by Padre Presidente Lasuén, assisted by Padres Santiago 
and Peyri, who were assigned to the mission. It was located 
back of and between Missions San Juan Capistrano and 
San Diego, of the outer chain. 

During the previous year, Lasuén, escorted by Corporal 
Lisalde and five men, had himself sought a site for this 
mission. ‘The number of docile Indians in the immediate 
neighborhood of this place, named originally San Juan 
Capistrano, known later as Capistrano el Viejo—Old 
Capistrano—had been a controlling factor in its selection. 
The padre had had some misgivings as to the possibility 
of raising good crops there. But at the end of 1800, there 
was a credit of twenty-one hundred and twenty bushels of 
wheat and barley. The crop of maize came out even—only 
as much being gathered as had been planted—and the bean 
crop was a failure. 

The first year there were two hundred and fourteen bap: 
tisms, and at the end of 1800 there were three hundred 
and thirty-seven neophytes at the mission. 


ae 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 411 


As will have been seen, the padre presidente had per- 
sonally founded all five of the new missions. 


Soon after the founding of Mission San Miguel Arcangel, 
Padre Antonio de la Concepcién Horra arrived and, from 
the day of his arrival, when he arranged blankets, with due 
regard to his comfort, on his bed of boards and took a 
siesta, he drew the attention of all to himself. 

His behavior was unusual, for the friars in Alta Cali: 
fornia were Observants, the most austere members of the 
Order of St. Francis, adhering strictly to his precepts, which, 
being reduced to their lowest terms, amounted to never 
being comfortable when to be uncomfortable was possible! 

Then began, on that very first day, stinging criticisms 
from him in regard to the management of the mission. On 
the next day, he worked himself into a frenzy and alarmed 
Padre Sitjar by declaring: “ ‘Little lacked it last night that 
I took a course with the Father-President that would have 
resounded in the land’”’ (Richman). He was rabid because 
the neophytes were not compelled to speak Castilian accord- 
ing to royal orders; and his first sermon proclaimed to them 
that discard their native speech they must. Padre Sitjar, 
who had been for years at Mission San Antonio, was a 
practical soul who had blinked this issue—impossible of 
fulfillment. 

Alternately changing from mirth without reason to anger 
without cause, he strutted about wrapped in megalomania: 
in imagination a great ruler, ordering the Indians to dis- 
charge flights of arrows and the soldiers rounds of car- 
tridges. © 

The mission guard contemplated the spectacle he made 
of himself, watchfully, fearing the outcome. ‘The Indians, 
horrified at his gesticulations and shouts, began to leave 
the mission. His companion friar at the mission, Buena- 
ventura Sitjar, was afraid to be with him and hastily betook 
himself to Santa Barbara, where the padre presidente then 


412 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


was, to describe in detail, as no writing could, these wild 
goings-on at the mission. 

Lasuén reported to Governor Borica, on August 19, that 
Horra was to be taken to Monterey by Padre de Miguel, 
‘by gentle means if he can, or any way he may,” and 
brought before him, adding: “‘ ‘I have resolved, as far as 
concerns me, that he should embark as soon as possible on 
the frigate Concepcion’”’ (Engelhardt). 

All were convinced that Padre Concepcion was demented. 
He was found to have secreted a pair of pistols and, per- 
haps, the padre presidente had really narrowly escaped 
death at the hands of a madman. He was enticed to Mon- 
terey but did not consider himself enticed and, later, claimed 
to have been roughly treated. There, both surgeons pro- 
nounced him insane. 

Before being detailed to Alta California, Padre Con- 
cepcién had already displayed signs of approaching mega- 
lomania by announcing himself at the College of San Fer- 
nando as maestro de ceremonias—master of ceremonies— 
when, as a matter of fact, there was no such office! 

Two padres, who had served their ten years as mis- 
sionaries and were broken in health, were about to return 
to Mexico, and Padre Concepcion was sent with them. 

There was another friar who went at the same time, said 
to have been little less insane than Concepcion, but, as to 
that, opinions differed. This was Padre José Maria Fer- 
nandez, who, in 1796, was at the mission at Dolores. To 
the governor he had given the harshness of Padres Danti 
and Landaeta as the reason so many neophytes had fled 
the mission during the year 1795. Investigation by Borica 
had substantiated the charge, and he had then taken up 
the matter with the padre presidente, who wrote ‘‘that he 
would see that the causes of the complaints disappeared”’ 
(Engelhardt). 


On July 1, 1798, Governor Borica, writing to the viceroy, 


ee A a ns 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 413 


reported “that since October, 1796, the rigor with which 
the Indians of San Francisco had been treated had ceased. 
‘I do not attribute,’ he said, ‘the merit of this change to 
myself. . . . The true author is Father José Maria Fer- 
nandez’”’ (Richman, note). 

On the other hand, Padre Fernandez is said to have 
been the victim of hallucinations due to an accidental blow 
on the head; and an epidemic raging at the mission is held 
responsible for the many deaths among the neophytes, two 
hundred and three, and the hegira of some two hundred 
during the year 1795. Governor Borica, it seems, was con- 
vinced, later, that the many departures were due to fear 
of contagion. 


The return of Padre Concepcion to the College of San 
Fernando was not the end but the beginning of a cause 
célébre, in which many ranged themselves on the side of 
the insane priest. In a memorial which he prepared and 
sent secretly to the viceroy, he brought charges—some, very 
serious—against the friars in charge of the Alta California 
missions. He declared that while possessing not inconsid- 
erable wealth, and spending hundreds of pesos for liquor, 
they were niggardly in the matter of wine for mass; 
that the neophytes were treated very cruelly, floggings, 
shackles, and the stocks being ordered for the most 
trifling faults. 

Less shocking were his other accusations: that tariff prices 
were disregarded; that Indians were taught the doctrina 
in their own language instead of, according to royal orders, 
in Castilian, and were sometimes baptized twice; that 
because he was ready to expose these nefarious practices, 
he had been accused of dementia and returned to Mexico. 
And he asked that he might finish out his ten-year term 
as a missionary in Michoacan. This was not granted, but 
in 1799 he was transferred to Queretaro for a time, for 


414 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


which the Guardian of the College of San Fernando 
“thanked God.” 

In August, 1798, the viceroy forwarded Concepcion’s 
charges to Governor Borica for investigation. At the end 
of December of the same year, Borica’s report, embodying 
those of Argiiello, Sal, and Goycoechea, three of the 
comandantes, to him, was ready: He dismissed the rest 
of the charges as not to be taken seriously, but stated that 
“the charge of ill-treatment was in the main well-founded” 
(ibid.). He said that, as governor, he had no authority 
over mission affairs, even in temporalities; that “he knew 
nothing as to the condition of the Mission exchequer. It 
probably was richer than was supposed”’ (ibid.). 

The affair dragged along from one to another in high 
authority; books at the college, showing less money to the 
credit of the Alta California missions than their annual 
upkeep, were quoted. Finally, the guardian supplicated 
that the viceroy ‘ ‘be pleased either to intrust the reduc- 
tions there to other hands, or else that before the King 
our sovereign, the public his vassals, and all the world, the 
honor, credit, and good name of the individuals of this 
college, and the fame and reputation of our sacred habit, 
be wholly cleared and vindicated,—a right which we cannot 
foreno .alnet apes 

In 1800-1, Lasuén devoted seven months to his reply to 
fifteen questions sent to be answered, which Bancroft calls 
‘‘a comprehensive exposition of the whole subject . . . the 
most eloquent and complete defence and presentment of the 
mission system in many of its phases . . . extant.” 

The physician at San Fernando had recommended that 


Padre Antonio de la Concepcion Horra be returned to © 
Spain; but it was not until 1804 that, with the consent of — 
the Council of the Indies and of the viceroy, he finally went. — 
‘“‘When last seen he was being conducted to his province — 
from Madrid, after a season at Aranjuez, where in the 
royal audience chambers he had sought to attract notice — 


_—a 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 415 


by ringing a hand-bell and uttering pious ejaculations” 


(Richman). 


Long since relieved of swaddling clothes, four of the five 
new missions of the inner chain had passed their fifth birth- 
days, and San Luis Rey, the youngest, was ‘‘goin’ on’’ five. 
They were creditably in line with their elder sisters in the 
long and interesting biennial report to the College of San 
Fernando, prepared by the aged padre presidente and 
dated February 21, 1803. 

At the then existing eighteen missions, there were thirty- 
six regular missionaries receiving four hundred pesos a 
year from the Pious Fund, in goods, for their neophytes 
and missions, including a few necessaries for themselves. 
There were, also, three supernumeraries without stipends. 

There were more than fifteen thousand Indians, male 
and female, at the missions. Live stock would soon pass 
the two hundred thousand mark and bushels of grain ran 
into phenomenal figures. 

No report on fruits produced was required, but fruits 
were raised at all of the missions,—wine and table grapes, 
at about half; olives were grown at many, and good olive 
oil was being expressed at San Diego. 


This was the good padre’s last report. 

Four months later, on June 26 of that year, 1803, Fray 
Fermin put aside his earthly cross, forever. 

The day of the death of Padre President Fray Fermin 
Francisco de Lasuén was a sad one at Carmelo and at Mon- 
terey. On the next day, he was buried in the church with 
appropriate ceremonies—and that is about all that is known 
of the passing of this remarkable man. He was beloved, 
but he had no personal historian, no devoted Palou, and, 
thus, much that weuld be of interest regarding him and his 
work has been lost te us. 


416 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


During thirty years in the province, he was never un- 
ready; he created no difficulties, but endeavored to clear 
the path and so to codperate that Church and State might 
go forward jointly, unimpeded; he was steadfast against 
innovations that were not for the best, and, in his criticisms, 
constructive. 

Padre Lasuén was a good man, neither a bigot nor a 
fanatic; nor was he a victim to that morbid introspection, 
destructive to mental balance, induced by those solitudes. 
On the contrary, he was thoroughly sane, a wise man and 
practical, living objectively, oblivious of self and absorbed 
in his work. His character was simple and upright. He 
was straightforward, firm, speaking the truth with frank- 
ness; and in his written communications, clear and concise— 
a most unusual accomplishment in that day of ambiguity 
and verbiage. Evidently, he was possessed of great per- 
sonal magnetism, impressing, with his simple dignity and 
charm of manner, the few visitors to that far-away land 
from the outside world. 

Lasuén was a tireless worker, founding many missions, 
but he does not seem to have urged them. He was to be 
found where he was needed. Mission San Carlos was his 
home mission, but the greatest good of all the missions 
was his work, and he journeyed from one to the other of 
the eighteen, spending much time at Mission Santa Clara. — 

Fermin Francisco de Lasuén was born at Vitoria, Alava, 
Spain, and was, supposedly, of French descent. On March 
14, 1768, he sailed from San Blas for Baja California, 
assigned to Mission San Francisco de Borja. From there, 
he journeyed to Velicata, to speed with his blessing the first 
division of land forces in the “sacred expedition” of Don 
José de Galvez, breaking a way northward in March, 1769; 
and, later, in 1773, following their trail himself, arriving 
at San Diego on August 30. He served at San Gabriel, 
San Juan Capistrano, and San Diego prior to his appoint- 
ment, in 1785, to the office of padre presidente. 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA ALT 


Padre Lasuén was succeeded in office by Padre Fray 
Estévan Tapis, of Mission Santa Barbara. 


Not a great deal of education was necessary at that time 
in Alta California; but there was less than was necessary 
and there were no facilities for acquiring any, even the most 
elementary. 

The soldiers were very ignorant. For example: In San 
Francisco, in 1786, only seven soldiers out of thirty could 
write; in 1791, two out of thirty-eight; and, in 1794, not 
aman! Few in the ranks were fitted to be corporals; and 
corporals often could not make the next grade because 
they could not read. Promotion was slow. 

Officers taught their children, in many cases; but igno- 
rance of the Spanish equivalent for “the three R’s” was so 
usual as to cause little comment. 

To Governor Borica belongs the honor of having made 
a beginning: Before the end of 1794, a school was started 
at San José. The schoolhouse was a municipal granary, 
which would not be needed for its legitimate purpose until 
after the next harvest. Manuel Vargas was the first 
schoolmaster. Later, he was transferred to San Diego, 
and in 1798 he was in Santa Barbara. He evidently was 
addicted to drink, for the comandante there was notified 
by the governor that if Vargas did not mend his ways 
he was to be removed, ‘‘that drunkenness was a destestable 
vice, in fact a forerunner of all other vices; that it would 
not be tolerated in a school teacher . . .”’ (Hittell). He 
mended his ways. 

In place of Vargas as schoolmaster at San José, the 
alférez, who was a real not a so-called don, had been 
installed—who had never, by any accident, been able to 
keep his accounts correctly—Ramon Lasso de la Vega. 
His pay was to be advanced from the government revenue 
on tobacco, and collected afterward. A home was to be 


418 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


furnished Don Ramon for himself and family. Twice had 
he asked and twice had he been refused permission to 
marry. Evidently the government had relented; but not 
as to his indebtedness, for, later, under date of August 19, 
1797, he is dunned to pay a balance still due. 

Mexico was asked to send primary teachers, but, in the 
long meantime, near-at-hand “talent”? was seized upon, 
avidly, by the governor: José Manuel Toca, a grumete— 
cabin or ship’s boy—from one of the transports, being 
pressed into service at Santa Barbara. Corporal Manuel 
Boronda, a carpenter as well as a soldier, taught the chil- 
dren at San Francisco gratuitously, as did José Rodriguez, 
also a soldier-carpenter, at Monterey. 

Reports and copy books were to be sent, every so often, 
to the governor; and these reports and copy books were 
to be saved and, out of them, cartridges were to be made. 

Soldiers and corporals were ordered to study and pre- 
pare for promotion. 

And so the good work was begun. 


XXXIV 


Don Diego de Borica was a man of many letters: letters 
of all sorts; but in his letters to his friends, written shortly 
after his arrival at the capital, in which he gives—vividly— 
his first impressions, one’s interest centers. A few excerpts 
quoted and requoted in the various histories are simply tan- 
talizing bits, creating a desire for more. Among other 
things, he says: ‘“‘ ‘Este es un gran pais [This is a great 
country|’”’; and writes of the climate of Monterey as 
“sano y entre frio y templado [healthy and between cold 
and temperate].’”’ A bon vivant, he dwells on the delecta- 
bles gustatory to be had; but, besides and better—here 
we see the man—not seeking, finding in the new land that 
ofttimes evasive something, light-heartedness, he adds “‘ ‘y 
bonne humeur, que vale por todo [and bonne humeur, which 
is worth all]’”’ (Hittell, Spanish note). 


There was, perhaps, a little more state and ceremony, but 
there was nothing brilliant in the administration of Don 
Diego de Borica. It was worthy. 

This is not disparagement. No opportunity for out- 
standing effect awaited him in the Californias. He came 
to Monterey filled with enthusiasm and the pure joy of 
living; with the will to achieve, to do worth-while things 
in a worth-while way; and found himself the center of a 
world of details—gone wrong. 

There was nothing dramatic in the situation; and Borica 
was not, himself, dramatic. Most of the time, he remained 
at Monterey, where he seems to have been very contented, 
and did his duty thoroughly. He had the courage of his 
convictions—and his convictions were good. 


[419 ] 


420 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


An enormous amount of routine work fell to his lot as 
military and political Governor of the Californias, but Don 
Diego was endlessly industrious—his innate enthusiasm 
flowing in new channels—and he expressed himself unre- 
servedly in the terms available; and, where it was possible, 
accomplished. Sometimes he was left in the lurch, his 
work uselessly done and his energy wasted. We know the 
story of Branciforte. 

New issues were constantly presenting themselves and, 
from painstaking attention given to postal charges and the 
revenue on tobacco to careful consideration of tithes and 
indulgences, he was a faithful official, unflagging in his 
efforts to overcome existing evils and to point a way toward 
better things. 

Don Diego got along with the missionaries—better than 
did his predecessors, which is not saying much! And, in 
truth, they did not like him any too well, nor did they any 
government official, no matter how frailero he might be! 

By no means a prohibitionist, Borica undoubtedly made 
a vigorous, if not absolutely the first, fight against liquor 
in Alta California. Despite the assertion of Captain 
George Vancouver that “‘spirits and wine’ were “scarce 
articles” in the country, aguardiente, an agent of evil, was 
to be had and much mescal was being brought into the prov- 
ince with deleterious effects. This traffic, Borica fought 
valiantly with little result, not being given adequate gov- 
ernmental support; but, nevertheless, he sought so to regu- 
late it that it would do the least harm. 

Teaching Castilian to the aborigines was uppermost in 
the minds of officials in Spain, but Borica was trying to 
remedy the great lack of even the rudiments among the 
soldiers and, at the same time, to devise a way by which 
children of officers and settlers at presidios and pueblos 
should not grow up in the outer darkness of ignorance; and 
the little tallow dip which he lighted became a beacon! 

Borica was heartily in favor of dividing the government 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 421 


of the Californias, and, in a written opinion asked for, 
gave his reasons, some of them being that, in important 
matters, Baja California suffered from the delay occasioned 
by despatches being first sent to Monterey and, from there, 
transmitted to Loreto; that many of the interests of the 
lower province, such as pearl fisheries and mines, were quite 
distinct; and that the methods of the Dominicans and the 
Franciscans were different. 

In advocating the change, he indicated, delicately but 
pointedly, that no better man could be found for governor 
of the new province than the present lieutenant governor, 
José Joaquin de Arrillaga. 

No mention has been made of the numberless reports of 
the usual Spanish length that had to be despatched; and, 
at last, this man of many letters, weary unto death, had 
to ask to be excused for the brevity of an epistle to a friend, 
“saying that it was as difficult for him to dictate a letter 
as to write one—that he felt old and had lost his energy” 
(Hittell). 


On April 1, 1799, Governor Don Diego de Borica asked 
to be relieved from office or, at least, to be given a leave 
of absence, that he might return to Mexico for surgical or 
medical treatment, for he was ill, adding that his consti- 
tution was giving way after twenty-five years of continuous 
service, during which time he had traveled more than ten 
thousand leagues on horseback. 

An eight months’ leave of absence was granted him and 
this was made known in California in September of that 
year; but arrangements for the proper continuance of the 
government of the Californias, for even a lengthy period, 
were made. Under instructions from the viceroy, Governor 
Borica appointed Lieutenant Governor Arrillaga interino, 
and ordered Lieutenant Colonel Alberni, comandante at 
San Francisco, to Monterey as comandante de armas for 
Alta California. On January 3, 1800, he instructed the 


422 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


comandantes to publish the accession of Arrillaga and 
Alberni. 

He had advised Arrillaga to petition for the office he 
himself held and, to this petition, which reached him at 
San, Diego shortly before his. departure, he added, in a 
marginal note, his unqualified recommendation of the appli- 
cant. This document was sent to Mexico and from there 
to Spain. 

On January 16, Don Diego, Dona Maria Magdalena, and 
their three children—two having been born in California— 
sailed on the Concepcion from San Diego for San Blas. 

Don Diego de Borica never reached the capital, dying 
at Durango, July 19 of the same year, 1800. He had been 
Governor of the Californias for five years and eight months. 


As it was expected that a conclusion would soon be 
reached in the matter of dividing the Californias into dis- 
tinct provinces, the appointment of a successor to Borica 
was postponed until that should have been settled, and 
Arrillaga, the governor ad interim, remained at Loreto. 

In March, 1804, royal orders dividing the Californias 
were issued. In the same royal orders, Arrillaga was 
appointed gobernador militar y politico of the northern 
province, with a salary of four thousand pesos per annum. 
His acknowledgment to the viceroy is dated November 16, 
1804, from which date he became gobernador propietario 
de Nueva California—New California—under orders to 
act, also, as interino for Antigua California—Old Cali- 
fornia—until such time as a propietario for that province 
might be appointed. 

He was given permission to proceed to Monterey, but 
was not able to avail himself of the privilege until certain 
technicalities in connection with his installation as political 
governor, which could not be complied with because of dis- 
tance, had been waived. Orders permitting him to tender 
his oath of office before the senior officer in the vicinity, 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 423 


who was to act as comisionado for the viceroy, are dated 
March 7, 1805. 

In orders, issued at Madrid in that year, Don Felipe de 
Goycoechea, comandante at Santa Barbara, was appointed 
Governor of Antigua California. 


Several uneventful years followed the departure of Goy- 
ernor Borica from Alta California. Routine orders ema- 
nated from Loreto and comparative serenity was enjoyed 
at Monterey. 

Toward the end of 1800, on December 8, Don Her- 
menegildo Sal passed away at Monterey and was buried 
in the church at Mission San Carlos, with military honors. 
Twenty-four years in the province, Sal had served Spain 
faithfully and capably; and, earlier in the year, had applied 
for retirement with the rank of captain. He was born at 
Villa de Valdemoro, Castilla la Nueva, Spain. 

In March, 1802, another notable began the journey to 
the Great Beyond, Lieutenant Colonel Don Pedro de 
Alberni, a Catalonian, born at Tortosa, Spain, ranking mil- 
itary officer in the Californias, in command at Monterey. 
He, also, was buried with military honors, in the church 
at Carmelo. 


Warnings in regard to foreign vessels came, as usual, 
with special orders as to those flying the British flag. At 
the end of 1802, however, news reached the Californias 
that England and Spain were no longer at war; and high 
masses were ordered by the viceroy in honor of peace. 

The attention of comandantes had been called to Ameri- 
can craft, constantly on the coast, whose activities were to 
be noted. 


On February 26, 1803, the Alexander (Boston owners) 
—Captain John Brown—put in at San Diego and came to 


AQ SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


anchor. Brown said that his crew had scurvy, and asked 
to remain for a time. 

The comandante, Don Manuel Rodriguez, granted the 
request, naming a time limit of eight days, and, because of 
contagion, designated a landing place at some distance from 
the fort. Fresh provisions were furnished. 

Rodriguez became convinced that Brown had other busi- 
ness at San Diego than the restoration of his men to health; 
and, on the night of March 3, under orders from him, an 
oficer boarded the vessel and seized nearly five hundred 
otter skins which had been smuggled on board. Brown was 
ordered to depart at once. He did so, but merely changed 
his anchorage to Todos Santos and asked for wood. 

On March 17, in the evening, the Lelia Byrd—Captain 
William Shaler—entered the harbor without being hailed 
and found a comfortable anchorage. ‘This is well, as the 
Lelia’s is a long story. 

Second in command and in partnership with Shaler was 
Richard J. Cleveland, of Salem, Massachusetts, who had 
amassed a fortune in Pacific trade and was very familiar 
with its ins and outs, but had not tried his luck on the coast 
of the Californias. He had outfitted the Lelia Byrd at 
Hamburg, sailing from there in November, 1801, carrying 
a cargo consisting of a great variety of merchandise which 
was to be sold by fair means or foul. 

Doubling Cape Horn, the Lelia reached San Blas in July, 
1802, remaining thereabouts for something like six months, 
until this ‘‘watchful waiting’’ resulted in sixteen hundred 
otter skins, just from California, being secured at prices so 
favorable that in themselves they made the voyage a suc- 
cess; and ten thousand dollars’ worth of goods was dis- 
posed of. 

This was not brought about by the Lelia’s masts being 
outlined against the horizon. Collusion with the comisario 
and an emissary to Mexico, in the person of some one from 
on board, are hinted at. 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 425 


A distinguished Pole—Count Rouissillon—interested in 
the profits of the voyage had sailed with Shaler and Cleve- 
land, but left the ship at San Blas. 

Sailing from San Blas on January 25, 1803, the Lelia 
was put in condition at Tres Marias. From there, in 
February, Shaler laid his course for San Diego. 

On the morning after the arrival of the Lelia Byrd in 
the bay, the comandante, with an escort of twelve men, 
visited the vessel. ‘[he usual courtesies and formalities 
were complied with. Permission to land was given, but the 
presidio was not to be visited; and the necessity, under the 
law, for immediate departure was imparted. 

Leaving a guard of five men, under Sergeant Arce, on 
the Lelia, the comandante returned to the presidio. Now, 
Sergeant Arce did some unwise talking—either because he 
was pleasantly induced to do so or simply to be important 
—and the Americans were told that Rodriguez was in 
official possession of about one thousand otter skins includ- 
ing those seized, only a very short time before, on the 
Alexander, which episode was also narrated in detail by 
the indiscreet sergeant. 

Shaler made every effort to buy these skins, but failed. 

On March 21, the comandante again visited the vessel, 
received pay for supplies furnished, and, wishing Shaler and 
Cleveland a pleasant voyage, returned to land—suspicious 
of his visitors’ intentions! 

Preparations for departure went forward, but the two 
Americans, loath to depart without the pelts they desired, 
determined to glean at least those they had heard were in 
possession of some of the soldiers, who were more than 
willing to sell them—provided they were not caught doing 
so. Therefore, during the night, two boats were sent to 
different points to gather them in. One boat returned with 
a few skins; the other was seized by Rodriguez, who was 
expecting some such development. The mate and two men 
were bound, and, leaving three soldiers to guard them, the 


426 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


comandante went on to inspect the battery, where Corporal 
José Velasquez was in command. ‘There, goods which had 
been delivered by the Americans were found and confis- 
cated. Forty good otter skins were to have been paid for 
them, but, it seems, the pelts had not yet been handed over 
—either because of the inopportune arrival of the coman- 
dante and a hasty departure, in consequence, without them 
or because of some slip in prearrangements. 

Now the various accounts begin to complicate the story. 
But the gist is that on the morning after the eventful night, 
Cleveland came on shore to recover his men—and recoy- 
ered them. He says he got them on his own representa- 
tions—whatever they were—and that may be. He also 
says he was escorted by four men, each armed with a brace 
of pistols, and got them in that way—and that may be. 
Antonio Guillen, who, at the beginning of this episode, had 
been detailed by Rodriguez on the Lelia, came with Cleve- 
land, but made it convenient not to return with him. 
Instead, he hastened to the battery and warned the cor- 
poral that the intention on board was to sail without land- 
ing the guard. 

Forewarned, preparations were rushed to prevent the 
Americans from carrying off the Spaniards. And, when the 
sails were hurriedly run up on the Lelia Byrd and a dash 
was made for the open sea, all was in readiness at the 
battery ! 

Cleveland says that a gun was fired before departure— 
but nobody seems to have heard it. 

A flag was hoisted at the fort, and a blank cartridge 
fired. No attention being paid to the warning, next came 
a nine-pounder across the bows. The Spanish soldiers, 
who, it was supposed, were about to be kidnapped, were 
put in undesirably conspicuous positions by the Americans; 
and Shaler kept the Lelia straight on her course. Shots 
fired from the battery did some damage to the vessel; as 
to what, accounts disagree, but an ugly hole in her side 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 427 


seems to have been made. As the Lelia passed the fort, 
two broadsides from her six three-pounders were fired, 
scattering the Spaniards at the battery but doing no harm. 

Rodriguez says the battery ceased firing when the vessel 
did. Cleveland says that the cannonading went on for three 
quarters of an hour before a single shot was fired by the 
Americans. 

Before the Lelia finally shook her skirts free of the 
waters of the bay, Arce—the telltale—and the rest of the 
guard were put ashore, shouting, according to Cleveland: 
“Vivan los Americanos!” 

Credence seems to be given in greater measure to the 
statement of Rodriguez, an officer who had endeavored to 
do his duty, than to the say-so of two merchant adventurers, 
foiled in an attempt to smuggle. 

The Lelia was now turned southward and, putting in at 
San Quintin, Baja California, for repairs, met the Alex- 
ander. In a report in May, to Governor Arrillaga at 
Loreto, Corporal Ruiz of San Vicente, notes their arrival 
and says that one of them had ‘come out of a fight at 
San Diego ‘muy mal parado [very badly done up]’”’ (Ban- 
croft, note) ; that had he known of the fight he would not 
have allowed her to anchor. He adds that many friars 
visited the vessels; and encloses a note from Shaler—a com- 
plaint against the comandante at San Diego! 

The Americans and the Dominicans became very good 
friends; and, it seems, the spirit was willing, nay, more 
than willing—eager—but the Dominicans were not well 
equipped with the wherewith to barter with these illicit 
traders. 

After meeting Shaler and Cleveland in the Lelia Byrd, 
Brown again headed the Alexander northward, putting in 
wherever he thought he could impose upon the officials and, 
without their knowledge, take on a few pelts. 

Shaler and Cleveland steered for the Hawaiian Islands, 
and, later, the skins they had obtained were sold in China. 


4.28 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


Corporal Velasquez was put under arrest by Rodriguez, 
not for any dereliction of military duty in connection with 
the departure of the Americans, but because of the contra- 
band goods found at the battery and confiscated. Velasquez 
claimed that these had nothing whatever to do with trade; 
that there had been merely an exchange of gifts between 
his men and those on the Lelia. It is suggested that the 
forty otter skins had been confiscated by the comandante 
as well as the goods deposited at the battery by the Amer- 
icans. 

In June, 1806, the comandante at San Diego announced 
to the governor the sale of the confiscated articles and 
named four men who deserved to share in the proceeds: 
some two hundred and twelve pesos. As to the skins seized 
on the Alexander, it appears that before they could legally 
be disposed of, they rotted and were thrown into the 
sea. 

In May, the Alexander arrived in the Bay of San Fran- 
cisco—the second American vessel to enter the port. 
Brown’s record had not preceded him and he obtained not 
only wood and water but supplies. (What else he obtained 
is not stated.) When he sailed, his immediate destination 
was Bodega. 

On August 11, he returned with a consort, supposed by 
Bancroft to have been the Hazard—Captain James Rowan 
—met by Shaler and Cleveland at Valparaiso the previous 
year. 

Brown told a long tale of woe, including encounters with 
the Indians and hardships manifold—no doubt true—but 
he got no sympathy; instead, he was reminded that, not a 
great while before, he had received provisions enough for 
eight months; and was told to go hence, he could have 
nothing more. 

Without more ado, he weighed anchor and departed; 
but he did not go far, dropping in at Monterey, where he 
got what he asked for, and where the Alexander was put 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 429 


into sufficiently good condition for him to slip away in the 
night, leaving his bills unpaid. 

Rowan’s written statement as to the condition of the 
Hazard was verified personally by Comandante Argiiello, 
who went on board, and his requests received due attention. 
Further, if ever discretion, the better part of valor, was 
needed, it was then: The Hazard was equipped with twenty- 
two guns of nine and twelve pounds caliber and twenty 
swivel guns, with fifty men to man them and manage the 
ship. 

Argtiello had but two cavalrymen at his disposal, the 
rest being absent from the presidio; and, with the distinct 
understanding that there was to be no intercourse whatever 
with citizens or soldiers, permission was granted, that could, 
so easily, have been taken for granted, to remain four days, 
which became eight because of wind and fog. The Hazard 
sailed on August 19, Rowan having paid all his bills in 
cash. In September, Rowan applied for provisions at Santa 
Barbara and got them; but proceeding to San Juan Capis- 
trano, did not. 


Infantry was not very useful in the province, and the 
withdrawal of the Catalan Volunteers, numbering seventy 
oficers and men, was begun, detachments sailing on the 
Princesa and Activa in the autumn of that year, 1803; the 
rest following later. 


A new idea in the fur trade arrived on the northwest 
coast with the O’Cain, under command of Captain Joseph 
O’Cain, owned in part by the Winships, of Boston, from 
whence she sailed on January 23, 1803. Captain O’Cain 
must have cast a spell over the manager of the Russian 
American colonies, Aleksandr Andréevich Baranov, under 
which he agreed to send him south to secure otter skins 
on shares, and with him some Aleuts, with their bidarkas, 


430 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


to do the hunting. With varied experiences along the coast, 
and a long stay at San Quintin, the O’Cain returned to 
Sitka in June, 1804, with eleven hundred skins. It appears 
that several hundred more which should have been on 
board, but were not, had been sold by O’Cain to the friars 
at low prices for ready money, thus defrauding his partners 
by this shabby transaction. 

(Could this possibly have been ‘“Bostones,” Joseph 
O’Cain of the Phenix, who wanted to be made a Chris- 
tian!) 

After many untoward adventures, the Lelia, hailing from 
Canton, with Shaler on board—Cleveland, half owner in 
the questionable enterprise, having returned to Boston— 
was back off the coast in 1804, returning in 1805, and up 
to her old game, as is clearly shown in the excerpts from 
a narrative written (Bancroft thinks) by Shaler himself, as 
follows: ‘‘ ‘On the 23d [of May, 1804] we arrived on the 
coast of California, where I got abundant supplies of pro- 
visions, and began a trade with the missionaries and inhab- 
itants for furs. We continued on the coast . . . until the 
8th of July ...’.’; and, again: © “line Febroatyeesess 
arrived without any remarkable occurrence on the coast of 
California, where we got plentiful supplies of provisions 
as usual, and were not unsuccessful in our collection of 
furs’”’ (Bancroft). 

An astonishing bit of information, in this connection, 
coming through Bancroft from Cleveland’s narrative, is 
that Shaler succeeded in rounding out his career as “consul 
general of the U. S. to the Barbary powers”’! 

Storm-swept, having lost two of her officers and three 
men, her mast and two boats gone, the Hazard, in distress 
that none could gainsay, put in at San Francisco on January 
30, 1804, asking help, and got it without stint; departing 
at the end of February. But, while still in port, an order 
from the governor, to detain her, arrived. No effort seems 
to have been made to do so—and this is not to be wondered 


a i iii 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 43T 


at, for even in distress, the Hazard was amazingly well 
equipped with guns and men, which to the comandante of 
a defenseless presidio must have looked frightfully like 
GUNS AND MEN! 


XXXV 


On August 19, 1805, Arrillaga sailed from Loreto for 
San Luis Bay, and from there proceeded overland, arriving 
at Monterey on January 20 of the next year, 1806. 

During that year, the boundary line between Nueva and 
Antigua California was definitely fixed, and was the same 
as that which had divided the jurisdictions of the Domini- 
cans and Franciscans: south of Mission San Diego and 
north of Mission San Miguel at the Arroyo de Barrabas 6 
del Rosario. At the same time, military jurisdiction over 
the Dominican missions, which had been under the Presidio 
of San Diego, was transferred to the Presidio of Loreto; 
and thus the last link was severed and no connection, mil- 
itary, political, or ecclesiastical, remained. 


Among the first orders issued to the comandantes by 
Arrillaga, after his arrival at Monterey, was one very 
drastic and in some respects novel, in which he takes cog- 
nizance of an utter disregard, in the matter of contraband 
trade, of both the viceroy’s orders and his own; and states 
that existing conditions are to cease. 

Notice of the arrival of any vessel anywhere was to be 
given at the nearest presidio; supplies were to be refused 
and a guard was to be posted on shore to prevent inter- 
course with any one. And, in order that “assurance” might 
be ‘“‘double sure,’’ no citizen was to leave his residence 
during such time as the vessel remained. 

A thriving contraband trade was going on up and down 
the coast, manipulated by Americans, who laughed at Span- 
ish laws against it, and paid no more attention to them than 
if they had never been promulgated. 


[ 432 ] 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 433 


These orders, it is clear, were especially framed to cir- 
cumvent this; and behind them was a clever bit of finesse: 
The parties of the second part eliminated—absolutely 
removed, confined to their homes—the parties of the first 
part would have no reason for remaining. ‘Their excuse 
would be intact: provisions, wood, water; but their real 
and more sordid object, camouflaged by it, would be unat- 
tainable! 

On April 4, the Peacock—Captain Kimball—loaded with 
merchandise to trade for pelts, anchored off San Juan Capis- 
trano, four men going ashore with the usual request for 
provisions. None were forthcoming; and the corporal, 
mindful of recent orders, arrested them and sent them to 
the Presidio of San Diego. 

The Peacock recovered her boat and moved to a point 
farther down the coast off San Diego. From there, a letter 
was sent ashore and, in some way, delivered to one of the 
prisoners. In it, the information was conveyed that the 
Peacock would remain for a time, standing off and on, to 
pick them up should they escape. And, a vessel being 
sighted, on June 23 they did escape, stole a boat and 
put to sea, but came back, crestfallen, not having been 
rescued. 

However—the enthusiasm of the corporal at San Juan 
in carrying out orders and arresting suspicious persons bore 
fruit: On June 25, San Diego was visited by a mysterious 
craft, about which so much has been written and so little 
is known that it is sufficient to say, being refused provisions 
and an opportunity for repairs, she sailed on down the coast 
to Todos Santos. There she took on water, whether or 
no, and, also, whether or no, took on three men who had 
been posted to watch proceedings, using them as hostages 
for those from the Peacock, held at San Diego, which place 
the captain of the mystery ship, whoever he was, made such 
dire threats of demolishing that Comandante Rodriguez 
threw up entrenchments and prepared to give battle. He 


434 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


had only half a dozen men available, but they were sufficient 
for his needs, for no bombardment took place. 

Baranov had made other contracts similar to that made 
with Joseph O’Cain; and one of the men released reported 
a vessel hunting otter with northern Indians and canoes. 


The advance of the Russians after their arrival on the 
North American coast islands, in 1745, had been slow but 
very sure. 

Paying tribute to Russia and termed Russian, the per- 
sonnel of the first settlements was not Russian. The col- 
onists were Kamchatkans and Siberians of mixed blood. 
They were fur gatherers and fur traders, banded together 
in small groups continually fighting among themselves. 
Fearless, navigating any waters in their small craft—priva- 
teers—lawless, they did just about as they pleased. Their 
advent brought terror to the natives and turned the Aleut 
world into an inferno beyond the power of pen to depict. 
Fierce, cruel—they were like beasts of prey among them! 

This state of affairs lasted for more than forty years. 
Then, being, among other things, avaricious, groups joined 
other groups for mutual gain. Later, companies, asking 
and obtaining concessions and monopolies from the Russian 
government, were formed. 


At the same time, a plan was developing in Russia, origi- 
nating with Grigorii Ivanovich Shélekhov, head of a great 
fur company to gain control of the fur trade, and in 1788, 
Nikolai Petrovich de Rezanov, one of the ten barons of 
Russia, became interested in the project. Potentially, he 
was a keen business man and gave his time and energy to 
such purpose that upon the death of Shélekhovy, in 1795, 
he was the leading spirit and in unhampered control. 

Rezanov was court chamberlain to the tsar, and in 1783 
had been made privy councilor and invested with the order 
of St. Ann. He now set about obtaining such privileges 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 435 


as had been granted by England to the East India Com- 
pany. 

He succeeded so well that a merger of all the big con- 
cerns, crowding out or absorbing small companies and inde- 
pendent dealers, effected in 1799, was followed by an 
imperial grant giving dominion over a vast territory for 
a term of twenty years; and a gigantic all-powerful monop- 
oly—the Russian American Company—came into being. 

The great company flourished, Rezanov drew large rev- 
enues; and there were enormous profits to be divided among 
the shareholders, who included members of the imperial 
family. 


The first expedition sent around the world under the 
auspices of Russia, sailing in 1803, under orders of Tsar 
Alexander I, was commanded by Captain Adam Johann von 
Krusenstern, on board the Nadézhda, her consort, the 
Neva, being under Captain Urii Lisianskii, both of the 
imperial navy. 

On board the Nadézhda, and to whom, in some respects, 
Captain von Krusenstern was subordinate, was Baron de 
Rezanov, proceeding as ambassador extraordinary to the 
court of Japan—the first ambassador to that country from 
Russia. With that and his sorry experiences we have 
nothing to do, but as plenipotentiary of the Russian 
American Company, he reénters our story. 

Leaving the Nadézhda—which now disappears below the 
horizon of these pages—in June, 1805, at Petropavlovskii, 
Rezanovy crossed over to the Aleutian Islands, arriving at 
Unalaska in July. In his suite were Dr. Georg H. von 
Langsdorff, himself very distinguished, a surgeon, a man 
of science, a member of many learned societies, and a knight 
of the Order of St. Ann; two naval lieutenants, Davydov 
and Khvostov; and others. 

At this time, Russian American Company affairs were not 
in an entirely satisfactory condition and Rezanov found 


436 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


orders awaiting him to remain in the colonies as impe- 
rial inspector and bring about such reforms as might be 
necessary. 

Traveling slowly, investigating, and correcting so far as 
might be, he arrived in due course at the company’s head- 
quarters at New Archangel. 

Winter comes early on those inhospitable shores, and 
stays late; and by the failure of one supply ship to arrive 
and the wreck of another, with the coming of winter came 
worse than semi-starvation to the little colony of two hun- 
dred on the island of Sitka—and Rezanov starved with the 
rest. 

One day, when conditions were so bad that they could 
scarcely be worse; when crows and devilfish and all manner 
of unsavory things had been resorted to for food, the Juno 
—Captain Wolfe—dropped anchor; and, with a double 
purpose, permanent as well as temporary relief, Rezanov 
bought the vessel, cargo and all. 

Under date of February 15 of the next year, 1806, 
Rezanov wrote to the directors of the Russian American 
Company that he was going to California on the Juno to 
get provisions; was to weigh anchor about the 2oth, and 
might get caught in the equinoctials, but it was either that 
or starvation! 

On the next day, in a letter to the acting chamberlain, 
Vitovtov, Rezanov unburdens his soul. He lays bare the 
grief he has brought with him—his wife, a daughter of 
Shélekhov, having lately died—and reveals the, effect of 
all he is then enduring on the island of Sitka in the depres- 
sion apparent in its tone; and says: “ “No personal con- ~ 
siderations have entered into my unrestrained revelations, — 
but only the thought of glory and of the common wel- — 


fare. . . . A man robbed of his tranquillity of soul by a © 


merciless fate does not care for himself, and much less for — 
honors and praise, as they are all insufficient to fill the — 
void in his being which only death can bridge by uniting ~ 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 437 


him again with the one whom he has lost. . . . The moral 
sufferings, the voyage, and troubles have undermined my 
physical strength; various diseases have developed them- 
selves; my children in the meantime tell me that I have 
abandoned them. .. . The welfare of my fellow beings 
alone causes me to brave the seas . . . ’”’ (Richman). 

On March 8, Rezanov, accompanied by Langsdorff, 
sailed southward on the Juno, which was carrying a tempt- 
ing cargo of Russian and American goods to be offered the 
Spaniards in exchange for foodstuffs. Could temporary 
relief but be secured, Rezanov hoped to arrange, later, by 
treaty, a permanent trade, beneficial to both, between the 
two colonies. 

The voyage was frightful, the weather stormy, and the 
men so weakened by famine and scurvy that half were dis- 
abled. About the 4th of April, the Juno reached the 
entrance to the Bay of San Francisco, hove to and lay out- 
side until morning, when, with all sails set and wind in her 
favor, a straight run was made for the harbor. ‘The hail 
from the fort was answered, but the Juno did not drop 
anchor until out of range of the guns. Writing of this to 
the Minister of Commerce, Rezanov said: “ ‘With pale and 
emaciated faces, we reached San Francisco Bay, and 
anchored outside because of the fog. . . . As a refusal of 
permission to enter meant to perish at sea, I resolved, at 
the risk of two or three cannon-balls, to run straight for 
the fort at the entrance’”’ (ibid.). 


In the absence of his father, the comandante of the 
Presidio of San Francisco, it devolved upon Alférez Luis 
Argiello to meet the situation, and this he did by going 
to the shore escorted by twenty men and accompanied by 
Padre Uria. 

A boat was lowered, and Langsdorff and Lieutenant 
Davydov came ashore. 

The Krusenstern expedition was expected, having been 


438 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


officially announced, and certain courtesies were to be 
extended. The Juno was mistaken for one of the vessels 
of this expedition, and was more cordially received than 
she otherwise would have been. The entire interview was 
carried on in Latin, by Langsdorff and Padre Uria, this 
being the only language possessed in common by any two. 

Rezanov and his officers were invited to the presidio 
and entertained at dinner by Senora de Argiello, upon 
which occasion two friars lent their aid. Embarrassing 
questions were asked by Don Luis—the answers to which 
were to be transmitted to Governor Arrillaga at Monterey. 
Such questions had been expected and by way of answer 
there may have been some stretching of the truth. (The 
Spaniards must be impressed; supplies must be obtained ;— 
and ‘‘Necessity knows no law!”’) 

Rezanov’s own version of the explanation he gave of his 
arrival, singularly informal for an envoy extraordinary, 
and of the nonappearance of the Nadézhda and Neva, is 
given in substance, by Bancroft, in a note, from which the 
following is quoted: ‘‘. . . that Krusenstern’s squadron had 
returned to Russia; that the Tsar had intrusted him with 
the command of all his American possessions; that he had 
inspected his dominion during the past year . . . and that 
finally he had determined to visit California and consult 
with its governor, as ruler of a neighboring country, con- 
cerning mutual interests . . . and ‘at any rate I did not 
exaggerate much,’ he adds.” 

The visitors were entertained at the mission. Nothing 
was said about trade; but Rezanov made presents to prac- 
tically everybody there and thus adroitly the cargo was 
advertised. ‘Trade was in the air and ready to be put into 
words, but nothing could be done without the governor’s — 
consent. 


A courier had been despatched to Arrillaga, at Mon- — 
terey, announcing the arrival of the Russians; and, at the — 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 439 


same time, a note had been sent by Rezanov, thanking him 
for the courteous reception accorded him at San Francisco 
and announcing that as soon as repairs to his vessel were 
completed, he would present himself in person at the 
capital. 

Shortly afterward, he again wrote, saying that if it met 
with the governor’s approval, he would go overland to 
Monterey. ‘This not being at all in line with the desires 
of Arrillaga, Don José Dario Argiello, returning to San 
Francisco from Monterey, brought a letter from Governor 
Arrillaga to Rezanov, in which he said he would spare 
him the trouble, as he himself was about to journey north- 
ward. 

‘‘T recognized in this,’ says Rezanof, ‘the suspicious 
nature of the Spanish government, which everywhere pre- 
vents foreigners from acquainting themselves with the 
interior of the country, and observing the insignificance of 
its forces’”’ (Bancroft, note). 

About April 18, the governor arrived, and the personal 
interview desired by Rezanov was had—and many of them, 
both speaking French. | 

By this time, Spanish laws against trade were only too 
well known to Rezanoyv. ‘Trade in general was discussed 
at each interview, and the benefits to be derived from trade 
between the two countries, to which Arrillaga agreed—in 
the abstract. Evading the real issue, the dire need at the 
north, and the fact that he had brought a cargo of goods 
for the express purpose of trading it for foodstuffs, it 
was as though written before his eyes that the governor 
would neither break the laws nor violate his oath of office! 
From whatever angle he approached the subject, the 
incorruptibility of Arrillaga rose like a wall between 
them. 

The situation was hopeless. He was no nearer the gov- 
ernor’s consent to trade with the friars than at the first 
interview; and all the while, under the hatches of the Juno, 


440 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


lying at anchor in the bay, was the cargo—which probably 
had been known to the governor for some time. 

According to the Russian version, through Tikhméney, 
Rezanov approached the subject more directly, as follows: 
“I frankly tell you that we need bread, which we can get 
from Canton; but as California is nearer to us, and has 
produce which it cannot sell, I have come here to negotiate 
with you a preliminary agreement to be sent to our respec- 
tive courts’ ’’ (Richman). 

Arrillaga, finally, did consent to a purchase of grain for 
cash. But Rezanov, taking that as an entering wedge, 
dared a little more and asked wherein would be the harm 
if, grain being purchased for cash and a report made, the 
friars then, with money in hand, should also, for cash, pur- 
chase goods from the Juno? 

But Arrillaga would have none of this, and answered: 
‘““No. No, .. . that would be the same thing; and after 
living sixty years without reproach I cannot take such a 
trick on my conscience’”’ (Bancroft). 

Unknown to Arrillaga, whose ideas of right and wrong, 
if ever in the balance, had long since been mentally card- 
indexed and filed, a new and very upsetting influence was 
at work. His most cherished convictions were being uncere- 
moniously jostled; and Don José Joaquin de Arrillaga, 
the governor, was puzzled! 


Rezanov, at the presidio daily, a visitor at the house 
of the comandante, where he soon became very intimate, 
must have been able, from the very nature of the situation, 
to dispense with the Latin tongue and the aid of a friar as 
interpreter in order to play a part in a drama being lived 
by the players, in which the dramatis persone were: the 
governor, the comandante, the friars—all Spaniards ;— 
Rezanov, a Russian, a widower, forty-two years old, a fin- 
ished man of the great world far away from the crude little 


I 
a 
. 
' 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 441 


settlement, a diplomat—the hero; and, playing opposite, 
Concepcion Argiiello, the little sixteen-year-old daughter 
of the comandante. 

Even though fluent in French, a linguist, the author of a 
Japanese lexicon, Rezanov must have acquired the ability 
to converse in Spanish with phenomenal celerity. Some- 
thing more was needed than the universal language of love 
—for the man of the world and the ingénue loved one 
another; the drama was intricate and the plot was made up 
of many things. 

Rezanov was becoming daily more and more uneasy. A 
rumor of war between Russia and Spain, which might be 
confirmed at any moment, was very disconcerting, and the 
arrival of a vessel belonging to either country would greatly 
complicate his plans. He had sincerely very much at heart 
—and as speedily as might be—relief for his countrymen 
in the far north. 

Love-making went on, in the Spanish way, under the eyes 
of the whole family; but, evidently, all were blind, for none 
suspected; and when the Russian asked of the parents the 
hand of his girl sweetheart in marriage, the dénouement 
was complete! 

Not only was there great opposition but there were other 
difficulties: The two were not of the same religion, for one 
thing; and, for another, the consent of the tsar must be 
obtained. But Rezanov was equal to the occasion and 
decided that both of these matters might be arranged. 
He, himself, would go to Russia, obtain the consent of the 
tsar to the marriage and, armed with that and permission 
from the King of Spain, would secure a dispensation fro 
the pope. i 

Youth, beauty, and Dona Concepcion, Rezanov and that 
adept in removing obstacles, the little love god, proved 
too strong a combination against parental objection, half 
removed ere the siege was begun; and the consent and 


442 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


blessing of Don José Dario and Dona Ignacia Moraga 
were given. Rezanov, admired before, was now taken to 
their hearts, and became as one of themselves. 

‘From this time,’ he writes, ‘I managed this port of 
his Catholic Majesty as my interests required. The gov- 
ernor was very much astonished to see Don José intrust 
me with the most private affairs of his household, and to 
find himself all at once, so to speak, my guest’”’ (ibid.). 


Full of interest are the many quotations from various 
sources, especially those from Langsdorff’s Voyage and 
Rezanov’s letters, in text and footnotes, with comments 
and conclusions, furnished by Bancroft, who himself says: 
“Tt was not, however, until all other expedients had failed, 
that Rezanof pressed his suit so far as to propose mar- 
riage, and herein lies the evidence that rather unpleasantly 
merges the lover into the diplomate.”’ 

In part, at least, Bancroft bases this opinion upon one 
of Rezanov’s letters, from which he quotes, in a note, in 
substantiating his statement, as follows: “ ‘Seeing that my 
situation was not improving, expecting every day that some 
misunderstanding would arise, and having but little confi- 
dence in my own people, I resolved to change my politeness 
for a serious tone. Finally I imperceptibly created in her 
an impatience to hear something serious from me on the 
subject, which caused me to ask for her hand, to which 
she consented. My proposal created consternation in her 
parents, who had been reared in fanaticism; the difference 
in religion and the prospective separation from their daugh- 
ter made it a terrible blow for them. They ran to the 
missionaries, who did not know what to do; they hustled 
poor Concepcion to church, confessed her, and urged her 
to refuse me, but her resoluteness finally overcame them all. 
The holy fathers appealed to the decision of the throne 
of Rome, and if I could not accomplish my nuptials, I had 


0 ee es 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 443 


at least the preliminary act performed, the marriage con- 
tract drawn up, and forced them to betroth us.’ ” 


While no marriage could, at that time, take place under 
all the circumstances of Church and State, the marriage 
contract was signed and Baron Nikolai Petrovich de 
Rezanov and Senorita Dona Maria de la Concepcion 
Marcela Argtello were formally betrothed. 

(The friars reluctantly acceded to this, on condition that 
the betrothal be kept secret, pending the pope’s approval.) 

‘On his return to St. Petersburg, as Langsdorff tells us,”’ 
says Bancroft, “Rezanof proposed to go to Madrid as 
envoy extraordinary of the Russian court, to remove all 
misunderstanding between the two powers. Thence he 


would return by way of Mexico to San Francisco to claim 
his bride.” 


The Argiiellos made common cause with Rezanov in his 
unremitting efforts to convince Arrillaga; and the friars, 
eager to dispose of their grain in exchange for the very 
desirable cargo brought by the Juno, did what they could 
along the same lines. 

Some arrangement must be made that would not weigh 
too heavily on the consciences of all—and not at all on 
that of the oblivious Don José Joaquin de Arrillaga—by 
which the cargo might become foodstuffs for the Russian 
American colonies and the Spanish law against trade remain 
intact ! 

It was a difficult problem and the governor was beset 
with suggestions as to ways and means. 

But, at last, a way was found, and the governor’s consent 
was secured—on the ground of humanity, perhaps, for by 
this time he knew the whole story. As to details of the 
transaction, in substance the same but varying somewhat 
in different accounts, a petition was to be presented to the 


444. SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


governor, duly signed, in which the need in Alta California 
of the merchandise in the hold of the Juno was to be set 
forth; the governor was then, in view of this need, to pur- 
chase the cargo for cash; that being done, the commissary 
on board the vessel (Rezanov’s name was not to appear) 
was to purchase, also for cash, the sorely needed foodstuffs 
from the friars. The money thus received would then 
be returned to the governor, and no one’s reputation would 
be defiled. 

The matter was thus arranged, and the cargo on board 
the Juno was discharged and a new one taken on. 

On May 21, the Juno sailed away, saluting and being 
accorded a salute as the fort was passed, and, after a 
stormy voyage, arrived at Sitka on the 19th of June. 


In September, Rezanov set out across Siberia on his 
way overland to St. Petersburg, which he was never to 
reach; for, after several illnesses en route and a fall from 
his horse, he died at Krasnoyarsk, on March 1, 1807. 


Nothing was heard of this in Alta California, and Dona 
Concepcion was long in doubt as to the fate of her dis- 
tinguished lover; but was never in doubt as to him, her 
faith never waning. | 

A member of the Third Order of Franciscans, she 
donned, after a time, the habit of a nun and, there being 
no convents in the province, became a beata, caring for 
the sick and going about among the poor, doing good. 
But when a Dominican sisterhood was founded at Mon- 
terey, she entered it as Sister Maria Dominica, going later 
to the Convent of Santa Catarina of Siena, at Benicia. And 
there she died on Christmas Eve of the year 1857—the 
young girl of our story now grown old—freed at last from 
all the emotions by which she had been torn. 

Clad in the white robes of the order, surrounded by the 
beautiful symbolism of her faith, she was borne to the 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 445 


little cemetery of the convent, where a simple cross of 
brown stone marks her resting place. 


Historians, perforce without sentiment—an_ historian 
with sentiment would be an anomaly and no historian— 
have more than hinted that, had he lived, Nikolai Petrévich 
de Rezanov, chamberlain to the tsar, privy councilor, one 
of the ten barons of Russia, would never have returned. 

Why raise the question? It can never be answered! No 
true Californian wishes to think of Concepcion Argiiello, 
the heroine of song and story, who has given us the great 
romance of that period, as a beautiful pawn in the game 
of statecraft. Let us keep our romance! 

In seeking to discover the chemical composition of the 
perfume of a rose, the rose itself is destroyed. 


XXXVI 


Even before leaving Sitka on March 8, 1806, on the 
voyage to the south, Rezanov had clearly defined ideas for 
a much more comprehensive plan than merely establishing 
trade relations with Spain on the Pacific: no less, in fact, 
than the ultimate wresting from Spain of her possessions 
on the entire coast. “In a letter to the company dated 
New Archangel, Feb. 15, 1806, and marked ‘secret,’ Rez- 
anof, after recommending a settlement on the Columbia and 
an approach thence to San Francisco Bay, ‘which forms the 
boundary of California,’ . . . goes on to say: ‘If we can 
only obtain the means for the beginning of this plan, . . 
we should become strong enough to make use of any favor- 
able turn in European politics to include the coast of Cali- 
fornia in the Russian possessions . . . The Spaniards are 
very weak in these countries . . .’”’ (Bancroft, note). 

On the voyage southward, the Juno made repeated 
attempts to enter the Columbia River for the purpose of 
taking possession, but failed because the men were so 
weak from famine and so ill from scurvy that they could 
not manage the ship. 

Upon Rezanov’s return from San Francisco, his enthusi- 
asm was soon shared by Baranov, who decided to send out 
an exclusively Russian fur-gathering expedition which was 
also to make explorations and look for a site for the first 
settlement. 

An expedition of two vessels, commanded by Ivan Aleks- 
androvich Kuskév, an officer of the company, sailed in Octo- 
ber, 1808. One of the two, the Nikolai, was wrecked; the 
other, the Kadiak, with Kuskov on board, arrived safely at 
Bodega Bay, on January 8, 1809. 


[ 446 ] 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA AAT 


Friendly relations were established with the Indians. 
Explorations were made and some of the Aleuts with the 
expedition carried their bidarkas overland and industriously 
hunted otter in San Francisco Bay. 

Among the crew of the Juno were several men who had 
wished to remain in California, and, to prevent their dis- 
appearing and leaving the ship short-handed, Rezanov had 
had them confined on an island in the bay. Two of these— 
Americans—were on the Kadiak, and they with some others 
deserted, carrying news of Russian activities at Bodega to 
the Presidio of San Francisco, to which some of them had 
been sent after they had put in an appearance at San José 
where they had been thrown into jail. 

Not until August 29 did the Kadiak sail out of the harbor 
—homeward bound. 


Luis Antonio Argiiello, now lieutenant, became com- 
andante of the Presidio of San Francisco on August 5, 
1806, succeeding his father, Brevet Captain Don José 
Dario Argiiello, who, later, was made comandante at Santa 
Barbara and promoted to a captaincy. 

Gabriel Moraga followed Luis Argtello as company 
alférez, while Manuel Rodriguez became captain of the San 
Francisco company but was never there as such, for, being 
a skilled accountant, he was detailed as habilitado general 
for the province in Mexico. 

During that year, the depleted ranks were filled to the 
full quota of seventy men, including mission guards. 

For several years, paper had been wasted—wasted be- 
cause so few results had materialized from reports and 
correspondence as to the state of ruin into which buildings 
at the Presidio of San Francisco had fallen. Material used 
and plans of construction were basic factors but were not 
alone responsible for the dilapidation, for many other things 
had contributed: In February, 1802, a hurricane had hurled 
itself at the man-made things; and in 1804, in January and 


448 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


again in November, the elements ran riot and laid low the 
palisades at the battery of Yerba Buena. 

While, in 1805, Fort San Joaquin had been surrounded 
by a stone wall on three sides with palisades on the 
fourth, it had been effected by using Indian captives as 
laborers—and not a peso the less in the caja real because 
of it. 

On June 21, 1808, a series of earthquakes began. On 
July 17, the comandante notified the governor that there 
had been seventeen to date; that there had been much 
damage to the buildings; and that at Fort San Joaquin, 
should the shocks continue, he feared for the safety of 
the troops stationed there. 

In due course of perfunctory official routine, this informa- 
tion was passed on to the viceroy; but, in a conversation with 
the comandante, whose house had been cracked from roof 
to mudsill, Arrillaga, who must have become inured, in 
some way, to these disturbances, told Don Luis to go home, 
repair his house in readiness for winter—and to think no 
more of such trifles as earthquakes! However, his con- 
science must have pricked him because of his lack of sym- 
pathy with the woes of the comandante, for he followed 
his advice with a present of a box of dates. 


Spain was very far away and—with a barrier between, 
the viceroyalty, always the intermediary—was, in Alta 
California, more an idea than a reality. : 

On March 19, 1808, Carlos IV abdicated in favor of 
his son, Fernando VII. 

In February, 1809, news of the abdication and succession 
reached Monterey and orders from the viceroy were re- 
ceived by Arrillaga to proclaim the new king. On March 5, 
troops at presidios, pueblos, and missions were drawn up 
in line, under arms, and “Viva el rey nuestro y senor natural 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 449 


Don Fernando! [Long live our king and natural lord Don 
Ferdinand! ]” rang out. [Each time, the answer came clear 
and strong from all the men together: “Viva el rey nuestro 
y senor natural Don Fernando!” 

On the same day, masses were celebrated in all the 
churches and salutes boomed forth at presidios and forts. 

Again orders came from Mexico; and, in accordance 
therewith, on August 10, at Mission San Carlos at Carmelo, 
in the presence of Padre Presidente Tapis and Padres 
Amoros and Sarria, Surgeon Quijano and Alférez Estrada, 
Don José Joaquin de Arrillaga—the governor—with one 
hand on the holy gospels, holding up with the other the 
cross of his sword, knelt before the crucifix like some knight 
of old and swore allegiance to his “king and natural lord 


Don Fernando VII.” 


Shortly after the abdication and succession, Napoleon 
created his brother, Joseph, King of Spain and the Indies; 
and Spain became a whirlpool of indignation and uprisings. 
Nothing more, in that connection, is necessary to a clear 
understanding of our subject. But—with the invasion of 
Spain by Napoleon—spreading from that vortex in ever 
widening circles, effects in Spanish colonies were of a some- 
what different nature, bringing opportunity and incentive, 
and transforming latent into active dissatisfactions. On 
the political shore of the far outlying province, however, 
ripples were so faint that no flotsam of unrest came with 
them. 

Alta California was absolutely loyal to Spain—without 
mental reservation. The viceroyalty meant Spain. Orders 
from the viceroy meant orders from the king; and the king 
—even then, to all intents, a prisoner of state—was Fer- 
nando VII—and not Joseph Bonaparte. 

One might stop at that, were it not for a sequence of 
events in the viceroyalty—in which Alta California took 


450 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


no active part—leading up to results in which the province 
participated. 


In the little town of Dolores, Intendencia of Guanajuato, 
was a parish priest, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a true son 
of New Spain, with the good of the land of his birth close 
to his heart. Possessed of initiative, by nature progressive, 
he strove to better the condition of his flock. But all was 
not as peaceful as it reads, for he was very daring in these 
endeavors, introducing the silk industry—forbidden by law 
—and encouraging his parishioners to plant olives and 
vines, which—as he well knew—were monopolies of the 
mother country. 

This became known at the capital and, moreover, was 
not his first offense. 


Hidalgo was a graduate of the University of Mexico, 
receiving his bachelor’s degree at the age of seventeen, lec- 
turing afterward on philosophy and theology at the College 
of San Nicolas, in Valladolid, where, after his ordination 
at twenty-five, he served for a time as rector, but later 
as parish priest at San Felipe, Colima, and elsewhere. 

He was very advanced in his ideas and, as a priest, was 
looked upon as unorthodox and was believed to be greatly 
influenced by French thought even to the point of being 
revolutionary in his tendencies. In 1800, he was called be- 
fore the Inquisition, accused of all manner of evil things: 
heretical teachings, gambling, profligacy, and the reading of 
prohibited books. The case was dismissed for want of 
evidence, but the dossier was filed. 

For a time, he was a priest without a parish, but in 
1803, upon the death of his brother, he succeeded him 
as parish priest at Dolores. When his activities there 
were brought to the attention of the government, agents 
were sent who felled the forbidden trees and uprooted the 


=, Se. 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 451 


interdicted vines. [he old charges were reviewed and, 
several times, witnesses testified against him before the 
Inquisition. That terrifying body now lacked its erstwhile 
relentless vigor; and the case languished but did not die. 

Hidalgo was far from being alone in his revolutionary 
inclinations. Indeed, he had much company. Political 
restlessness was everywhere, of many merging varieties, 
ranging from 4 vague, nameless undercurrent of discontent 
to factions and properly designated parties—each faction 
with its aspirations, each racial mixture with its own heart- 
burnings. 

There were the creoles—meaning, in this limited con- 
nection, persons born in New Spain, both of whose parents 
were Spanish—always clamoring for equal rights, many 
being loyalists, that is to say, still loyal to Ferdinand VII 
and the Bourbons, but absolutely opposed to the viceroyalty 
being included within the Napoleonic governmental frame- 
work set up in Spain. Hidalgo was a creole. 

There were the mestizos, offspring of Spanish fathers 
and Indian mothers, usually illegitimate,—with ideas and 
ideals to be reckoned with. 

The gachupines—wearers of spurs—were, strictly speak- 
ing, Spaniards born in Spain, the ruling class, fathers of 
creoles and mestizos, and the object of especial dislike. 

The trend of the clergy, especially in the provincial 
towns, was toward the Independentist party, but, to all the 
clericals, anything was better than a Napoleonic government. 

And back of all was the Indian population, whose hearts 
pulsed with a vindictive, undying hatred of the Spaniard. 


In Querétaro, there was a so-called literary society which 
was beginning to be suspected of revolutionary tendencies. 
Among the members were the corregidor—magistrate— 
Miguel Dominguez; his wife, Dona Josefa Maria Ortiz; 
and Captain Ignacio Allende, an officer of the Spanish army, 
born at San Miguel el Grande (now San Miguel de 


452 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


Allende), who is credited with being the organizer, and 
with whom Hidalgo had been in communication. 

In 1808, he joined the group and became the chief con- 
spirator—for the literary and social club of Querétaro was 
a screen around a conspiracy in process of incubation, slated, 
in 1810, to appear in the open, full-fledged, on December 8 
of that year, at the time of the annual fair of San Juan de 
los Lagos, in the form of a general uprising of the people, 
with Guanajuato as headquarters. 

Cognizant of all this, having, early in August, wrung a 
full confession from several members of the organization, 
the government made no move in the matter until, on 
September 13, the corregidor was forced—perhaps as a 
test—to arrest Epigmenio Gonzalez, in whose house were 
stored large quantities of arms and ammunition belonging 
to the revolutionists; whereupon Dona Josefa Maria 
promptly warned Captain Allende of the dénouement. 

Don Miguel, the corregidor, and Dona Josefa Maria, 
the corregidora, were thrown into jail but were soon re- 
leased, the authorities choosing to make light of their con- 
nection with the matter. 

Almost at horse-killing speed—da mata caballo—on the 
night of September 15, Allende rode to Dolores, waking 


the priest out of his sleep to tell him what had been brought 


about. 

Preparations for revolution were well under way but, 
as yet, no organized codperation had been arranged. 
Nothing was ready. Nevertheless, for Hidalgo—impli- 
cated as he was—the revolutionary movement had begun. 
For him, there could be no standing still; there was no 
retreat and but one course was possible. And, on the 
next morning at daybreak—September 16, 1810—Miguel 
Hidalgo rang the bell of the little church, summoning the 
people, and proclaimed the revolution. 

El Grito de Dolores, invoking the assistance of Nuestra 
Senora de Guadalupe—Our Lady of Guadalupe—patroness 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 453 


of the native population, became the battle cry, and was 
taken by Hidalgo for the rallying shout. 

The march to San Miguel, some twenty miles distant, 
where arms and ammunition were to be procured, was 
begun. At Atotonilco, a banner of the Virgin of Guada- 
lupe was taken possession of and adopted as the standard 
of the revolution; adherents to the cause gathered rapidly; 
and, in an incredibly short time, fifty thousand Indians fol- 
lowed unquestioningly where it led. 

At San Miguel, Allende, at the head of his regiment, 
joined forces, but, despite his military training and experi- 
ence, Hidalgo was chosen commander. And now, with a 
horde of Indians, bent on destruction and aflame with the 
thought of loot, at his heels, this leader without military 
training who had been plunged into a military campaign 
in the middle of the night; this promoter of a new govern- 
ment with no knowledge of statecraft; this priest, Miguel 
Hidalgo y Costilla, went forth to meet his fate! 


Captain Allende justly felt that his education, as soldier 
and officer, should be taken into consideration; that some 
deference should be shown to his ideas in regard to mili- 
tary discipline and the management of troops; but Hidalgo 
conceded little to the judgment of the other, and the seeds 
of dissension were sown. 

With differences between them from the beginning, later, 
oficer and priest were entirely at outs. But, through it all, 
_ Allende kept faith, loyal to Hidalgo and to the cause. 

On September 18, the revolutionists set out from San 
Miguel. Celayo was captured and was not pillaged, but the 
Indians, held in check, were very restive. 

The march was resumed and a movement toward the 
capital was begun. 


Details have no place in a résumé such as this—merely 
an illuminating insert—presenting only the principal par- 


454 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


ticipants in the main sequence—an exemplification taken 
from the interwoven events, neither a beginning nor a 
culmination. 


At Guanajuato, the capital of the intendencia, the inten- 


dente, who had refused to surrender—fearing the Indian 


hordes could not be controlled—had gathered the entire 
Spanish population in the Alhéndiga de Granaditas—the 
Municipal Granary—hoping to hold this makeshift fort 
against the rebels until help could arrive. 

Fighting commenced. ‘The intendente was killed. The 
doors were burned and the place captured. Slaughter 
began and was consummated. None, not Allende, not 
Hidalgo, could stay the orgy of butchery indulged in by 
the Indians. Not a Spaniard was spared, not even one of 
those who had surrendered! 

Guadalajara was easily taken. At Guanajuato, a form 
of government had been set up; and Hidalgo assumed the 
title of ‘‘Captain General of America.” 

With a force numbering eighty thousand, the advance 
was continued; but the capital, their objective from the 
first, was never reached. Yet, in October, they were near 
enough and—although there had been defeats—they had 
been successful enough to create uneasiness and to cause 
the viceroy, Venegas, to make ready for flight to Vera 
Cruz! 

Reénforcements were expected but had not arrived. 
Allende was all for a quick descent upon the city; Hidalgo, 
against it—not wishing to be caught between two fires. 
There were vacillations; and there were, of course, penalties 
paid to Ignorance. 

Hidalgo’s envoys to the viceroy got off rather well, being 
simply ordered out of the city and warned that if they did 
not go at once they would be shot as traitors! 

Practically—the advance on the capital had been accom- 
plished. For some reason which must have been convinc- 


; 
t. 

4 
¥ 
a 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 455 


ing to him, Hidalgo struck no blow; but, instead, turned 
his forces about and marched them away toward Querétaro. 
And, as the distance from the capital, which had held out 
such bright prospects of loot, increased, the size of the 
“patriot army” diminished. 

To cut the story: Querétaro was not reached, and can- 
non, ammunition, and many supplies had been lost in an 
effort to avoid an encounter with Calleja, but, from Valla- 
dolid, where he had recruited his forces and manufactured 
ammunition, Hidalgo had gone to Guadalajara. He was 
very popular there and set about organizing a government. 
He was joined in December by Allende, who had been 
routed out of Guanajuato by Calleja. But their pros- 
pects were very bright, their forces again at the maximum 
and somewhat disciplined. They had cannon and, lacking 
small arms, had manufactured large quantities of hand 
grenades; and new revolutionary territory had been 
acquired. 3 

Calleja was now approaching, and with him were som 
six thousand thoroughly trained troops. 

Allende’s plan was to send out successive detachments 
to attack him. Hidalgo determined on one grand coup 
and to concentrate their entire strength for one killing 
blow. And this they did, meeting Calleja and his handful 
at the Puente de Calderon, about twelve leagues out of the 
city, on January 17, 1811. 

The battle lasted but six hours, resulting in the complete 
defeat of the revolutionary forces. That is the way it 
reads and that is the way it was. But—Calleja and his 
six thousand men, who won the day, did not defeat Hidalgo 
and his eighty thousand men who lost the day. Fire—the 
fortunes of war—put them to rout. 

Everything had been progressing marvelously well. 
Hidalgo’s plan was about to succeed—Calleja was on the 
verge of defeat—when the explosion of an ammunition 
wagon, into which a bomb had fallen, set fire to the dry 


456 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


grass in front of the revolutionary forces, compelling a 
retreat and stampeding them with smoke and flame! 

Scattered, they fled in disorderly confusion toward 
Zacatecas. 

Hidalgo, constrained by his officers, virtually their 
prisoner and no longer permitted to take part in their 
councils, now turned the command over to Allende. His 
leadership had been short—just one day more than four 
months. 


Allende now continued on beyond Zacatecas to Saltillo, 
proceeding toward Texas, despatching, in advance, Ignacio 
Aldama and Juan Salazar, a priest, to see what might be 
done there. But, in Texas, his emissaries were captured, 
sent to Monclova, and shot. 

Meanwhile, a creole lieutenant colonel, Ignacio Elizondo, 
had turned traitor, principally because of jealousy; and, 
prompted by “envy, hatred and malice, and all uncharitable- 
ness’ toward his brother officers, did a despicable thing: 

Allende, on the march, proceeding on his way, unsuspi- 
cious of treachery, his straggling forces numbering less than 
five thousand men, would be obliged to stop at the wells 
of Acatita de Bajan—and there, Elizondo lay in wait for 
him. 

Coming up, at sixes and sevens, group after group fell 
into the trap and, with almost no resistance, were captured. 
After Hidalgo was taken prisoner, a trifling scrimmage 
ended the matter. 

Hidalgo, Allende, and several others were sent, for trial, 
across the two hundred miles of desert to Chihuahua, the 
capital of the comandancia general. 

Allende and Jiménez, after court-martial, were shot in 
the back as traitors. 

A double punishment awaited Hidalgo. Disgraced as 
a priest, degraded from the priesthood, he was then turned 
over to the authorities, who ordered him shot as a rebel. 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 457 


And, on July 31, 1811, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, the 
patriot-priest, with courage unbroken, paid the great 
penalty. 

The severed heads of Hidalgo, Allende, Aldama, and 
Jiménez were taken to Guanajuato and exposed in iron 
cages at the four corners of the Alhondiga de Granaditas, 
as a warning of what might be expected should others 
follow in their blood-stained footsteps. 


The warning was not heeded, for José Maria Morelos y 
Pavon, born near Apatzangan, Michoacan, a mestizo, a 
graduate of San Nicolas College, Valladolid, another priest, 
with remarkable military ability, who had joined Hidalgo 
in 1810, carried on. 

Despite a crushing defeat at Cuautla (now Morelos), 
on November 2, 1812, his forces, in 1813, overran Mexico, 
and, in the south, he convened a congress and issued a con- 
stitution. But, on November 5, 1815, Morelos was cap- 
tured. He, too, was twice condemned. (Drawn, in part, 
from Priestley. ) 

Janvier, in writing of the Inquisition in Mexico, says 
“that the last notable auto de fé (November 26, 1815) 
was that at which the accused was the patriot Morelos. 
The finding against him was a foregone conclusion. “The 
Presbitero José Maria Morelos,’ declared the inquisitors, 
‘is an unconfessed heretic (hereje formal negativo), an 
abettor of heretics, and a disturber of the ecclesiastical 
hierarchy; a profaner of the holy sacraments; a traitor to 
God, to the King, and to the Pope.’ For which sins he 
was ‘condemned to do penance in a penitent’s dress’ . 
and was surrendered to the tender mercies of the secular 
arm. He was shot, December 22, 1815.” ‘To the end, 
Morelos was true to himself and his ideals. His courage 
never weakened and no retraction ever passed his lips. 


XXXVITI 


The early history of Alta California is like a welded 
chain of events from which no single link may be removed 
without disrupting the chain itself. 

When caravels felt their way over uncharted waters 
along an unknown coast, when every jornada was an adven- 
ture, each detail was fraught with interest and importance; 
but with the passing of the years, values shifted. ‘[here- 
fore, it seems entirely possible from now on to generalize 
more, and, at the same time, to present an accurate his- 
torical narrative with the continuity maintained and the 
interest for the reader preserved. 

The reader who is also a writer, to whom, as part of 
his mental equipment, every available detail—every his- 
torical hairsplitting—has its uses, seeks them in original 
sources: in monographs or in the works of historians who 
have specialized in a broader way or brought new material 
to light; in the historian’s htstory, the many volumes of 
Bancroft, in text and footnotes, extracts from manuscripts 
in collections and archives; and revels in details for which, 
in a one-volume history, there is neither need nor space— 
nor would they be interesting. 


The narrow strip of coast where waved the flag of Spain, 
and where the Spaniards had planted their vines and fig 
trees, had a very uncertain background. 

Until well along in the nineteenth century, the great 
mysterious inland valley lying behind the Coast Range was 
still almost as much an unknown world as it had been in 
the time of the early explorers: Rivera, Ortega, Fages, 


[ 458 ] 


ee ee 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 459 


Anza, Moraga, and Garcés, who had made good begin- 
nings and that was all. 

According to the season and the locality of the entrada, 
it had meant to one—having a bird’s-eye view from the 
top of a high hill—a network of rivers; to another, a vast 
waterless plain lying under an uncomfortably hot sun; to 
another, tulares and lakes: disconnected information de- 
tached from any whole, like a great patchwork quilt in 
process of making and not quite put together. Even the 
more recent Pedro Amador and Padre Juan Martin, 
who had conducted, without leave or license, an expedition 
all his own, Alférez José Joaquin Maitorena and the vari- 
ous corporals, sergeants, and lieutenants brought back only 
detached bits from their sallies. Nothing systematic had 
been accomplished. 

A growing menace in the Indian situation brought the 
need for more missions farther inland, outposts—the Cross 
with the Sword behind it—crowding back the less amena- 
ble of the aborigines, a barrier between them and Spanish 
coast settlements. 

In order to found more missions, sites had to be sought 
and explorations made, in which some, not all, of the 
secrets of the great valley, its rivers and its environments 
of mountains, were revealed. Most active in this, going 
hither and yon, penetrating the interior in many directions, 
following rivers to their sources and naming them, was 
Gabriel Moraga—systematic and indefatigable—famous as 
an Indian fighter, a son of the founder of San Francisco. 

Alta California Indians, although not warlike after the 
manner of the Apaches and Seris, were troublesome, neces- 
sitating constant vigilance, especially in the north where 
they were more daring than in the south. 

Sons of officers and men coming with the expedicion 
santa and with Anza, and of those who had been sent on in 
advance by Rivera from the Rio Colorado, were now active 
in military affairs, and some of them had more than won 


460 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


their spurs in fights with the Indians; and among them, 
Gabriel Moraga was preéminent. 

Many mission Indians had become expert horsemen, and 
fleeting neophytes, answering the call of the wild, as they 
still did, could, ofttimes, ride away, taking cattle and other 
horses along. They had, also, learned to use firearms 
and were imparting these accomplishments to the gentilidad, 
who were becoming correspondingly more dangerous. 

Pursuit of the runaways and their capture by the soldiers 
—a stop-gap—and raids upon the rancherias of their unre- 
generate friends, outside the pale of the missions, were 
inadequate to meet the situation. Occasionally, real pun- 
ishment, such as would not soon be forgotten, was admin- 
istered. 

For several years, the Indians in the Suisun region had 
been aggressive, making depredations and killing neophytes, 
sixteen from the mission at Dolores being among their 
victims. 

In May, 1810, which was a year of unpleasant activity 


among the Indians, Alférez Gabriel Moraga was sent in © 


command of a punitive expedition of seventeen men against 
them. Crossing Carquinez Strait, some one hundred and 
twenty natives were encountered. During the fight, eight- 
een were captured but so badly wounded that Moraga re- 
leased them to die. The rest retired to three jacales, and 
in two of them all were killed, the third being set on fire 
in order to drive the occupants out into the open, but the 
Indians remained where they were and perished in the 
flames. 

Royal orders, forwarded by the viceroy, under date of 
November 12 of the next year, 1811, brought commenda- 
tion and a brevet lieutenancy to Moraga; and others taking 
part were rewarded in various ways. 

In Indian warfare, as in exploration, Moraga was in a 
class by himself. There were, at that time, other Indian 
fighters, other explorers, valiant men, but Moraga stands 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 461 


out from all the rest while they take their respective places 
in the general scheme of things. 

Lieutenant Don Gabriel Moraga, ‘“‘the son of his father,” 
was, on his own account, a dashing and fascinating figure 
as seen through this perspective. 


According to Fray Zephyrin Engelhardt, our authority 
in these affairs, the decade just prior to this time, from 
1800 to 1810, was the “Golden Age of the California 
missions.” 

There had been time for results to begin to appear, and 
the uninterrupted rule of Arrillaga during these years had 
been conducive to peace and plenty. Arrillaga was decidedly 
persona grata with the missionaries, codperating in tem- 
poral affairs connected with the missions wherever possible, 
and not interfering in the slightest way with the purely 
spiritual. He had followed, perhaps without knowing of 
their existence, the instructions given more than thirty years 
before to his predecessor, the fiery Don Pedro Fages, ‘“‘ ‘to 
preserve harmony with the Missionary Fathers, and to let 
them freely perform their apostolic work . . . in order 
to keep the missionaries in the tranquillity which they 
Becincyrcs 9)” 


On January 14, 1811, Padre Fray Francisco Dumetz 
passed away. He was a native of Mallorca. He had been 
in the province for almost forty years, was the oldest of 
the missionaries, and the last of Serra’s companions. Padre 
Dumetz had served at five of the missions, twice at San 
Fernando and twice at San Gabriel, where he died and was 


buried. 


1812 was “el ano de los temblores’” and might well be 
so called because of a long series of earthquakes, beginning 
on the morning of Sunday, December 8, and lasting many 
months, extending from San Diego to Purisima Concepcion. 


462 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


The first shock was felt at San Gabriel at sunrise, taking 
off part of the tower and cracking the building, At San 
Juan Capistrano, all were at mass. The great tower fell 
on the vaulted roof of masonry, which gave way, falling 
in on the assembled congregation. ‘The padre and six neo- 
phytes escaped through the sacristy door; all the rest—more 
than forty persons—were killed. This was the finest struc- 
ture in California, and faulty construction, more than the 
severity of the shock, was responsible for the fatalities. 

Shocks from time to time were recorded at other mis- 
sions. Before January 1, there were three so severe at San 
Buenaventura that, fearing a tidal wave, the whole popula- 
tion fled to the interior, not returning until April. The 
entire facade of the church had to be replaced. The record- 
breaking day seems to have been January 21 of that year, 
1813. The-first felt at Santa Barbara, or the first severe 
one, would seem to have occurred on that day, when new 
springs of asphaltum—chapapote—bubbled up. The 
sea was troubled and cracks in the sierra were reported. 
These earthquakes and demonstrations continued; dwell- 
ings were shunned, all living in the open air for many 
months. 

On the same day, January 21, at Santa Inés, the corner 
of the church fell. At Purisima, a shock which lasted for 
four minutes was so violent that it was difficult to stand; 
and, half an hour later, another, still more severe, brought 
down the church and other buildings. Destruction was 
complete when the waterworks burst and rain fell! 


In order clearly to understand who was who in mission 
affairs—and why—an explanation at this point is quite 
necessary, and will simplify matters later. Owing, perhaps, 
to enormously increased “‘temporalities,” a change was now 


effected in their management, which curtailed, but in cer- — 


tain directions only, the power of the presidente. At an 
election held on the 13th of July, 1812, at the College of — 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 463 


San Fernando, in Mexico, a comisario prefecto, as well as 
a presidente, was elected. 

The comisario prefecto was the delegate or representa- 
tive of the Franciscan comisario general of the Indies, in 
Madrid; was comisario of the Inquisition as well; and had 
full control of all business matters pertaining to the mis- 
sions. In these things, he was the superior, or prelate 
of the presidente. On the other hand, as a missionary, the 
presidente was responsible to the Guardian of the College 
of San Fernando, and reported directly to him; and was 
the bishop’s vicar in matters ecclesiastical. That is the 
way it reads to a layman, and it does not seem in the least 
complicated. After it went into effect it worked very 
smoothly, for there was never any clash. 

In November of the same year, the result of the election 
was announced in California, the discretos of the college 
having elected Vicente Sarria, comisario prefecto, and José 
Francisco de Paula Senan, presidente, ‘‘ ‘religioso de ciencia, 
prudencia, y experiencia’”’ (Bancroft), to succeed Estévan 
Tapis. 

Senan, who also received his appointment as vicar, took 
up the duties of his office in December, but continued to 
reside at San Buenaventura. He was a Catalan, a native 
of Barcelona; and became a Franciscan at the age of four- 
teen. He was the last one left of the friars who had 
arrived in the province prior to 1790. 

It was not until July of the next year, 1813, that Padre 
Sarria anounced his assumption of the office to which he 
had been elected. There was much traveling in connection 
with his work, but Mission San Carlos at Carmelo was his 
headquarters. 

In the same year, on September 13, “‘the cortes of Spain 
passed a decree to the effect that all missions in America 
that had been founded ten years should at once be given up 
to the bishop ‘without excuse or pretext whatever, in accord- 
ance with the laws.’ It was provided that friars might 


464 | SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


be appointed if necessary as temporary curates, and that 
one or two might remain in each district where they had 
convents and had been serving as curates; but with these 
few and temporary exceptions they must move on to new 
conversions, and must at once yield the management of 
temporalities, the mission lands having to be reduced to 
private ownership, and the neophytes to be governed by 
their ayuntamientos and the civil authorities’ (Bancroft). 

Missions were not intended to be permanent. The 
name itself seems to carry with it the idea of propaganda 
fide and not the established church. In theory, at the end 
of the stipulated time, ten years, the missionaries should so 
successfully have instructed the converts that they could be 
delivered over to the regular secular clergy for spiritual 
guidance and would, at the same time, be ready to take 
their places as citizens under the civil authorities. 

In Alta California, however, where the good work had 
gone on for forty-four years, the Indians had certainly 
attained no such condition; and the missions had taken on 
a permanency foreign to the idea. The friars had never 
been approached on the subject of secularization; and the 
fact that the bishop had no curates to send (of which the 
friars were fully aware) must have added a great sense 
of security. 

It is possible that secularizing the missions in the province 
had not, during that time, been seriously contemplated, for 
although this decree, ‘“‘perfectly in accord with Spanish law 
and policy, applied to the missions of California and of all 
America . . . there was no attempt to enforce it in Cali- 
fornia, where it was not officially published as a law, and 
perhaps not even known, for eight years’’ (ibid.). 


Fur gathering, playing havoc with the fur-bearing animals 
on the coast of the Californias, and fur. trading—smug- 
gling—continued. 


L 
| 
3: 
q 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 465 


We have a clear idea of this trade carried on by the 
“Yankee captains,’’ some of them with contracts with the 
Russian American Company, bringing expert Aleut hunters 
with their bidarkas to do the actual ruthless slaughter; and 
of the thousands of dollars’ worth of skins, taken north and 
to China, without one peso of revenue to Spain. Therefore, 
it is unnecessary to note the repeated visits of the O’Cain, 
Albatross, and similar vessels, commanded by the Winships 
and others, unless in some special connection. 

The seizure, in 1813, of the Mercury—Captain George 
Washington Eayrs—of Boston, by the Flora, a Spanish 
vessel from Lima—Captain Nicolas Noé—off El Rufugio, 
that haven for smugglers, has made her more conspicuous 
historically than others of her kind. 

Spain had, it appears, years before, in a communication 
to the United States, protested against the sending of 
American trading vessels to the Californias. But the state- 
ments made by the Mercury’s commander reveal, in remark- 
ably bad English, that to padres and people, in this revo- 
lutionary period, at least, with the consequent cutting off 
of supplies, they were welcome visitors. 

The Mercury, after investigation by Argiello under 
orders from Arrillaga, was found to be a contrabandista 
and, later, both she and her commander were sent to San 
Blas. The matter languished for years and the final out- 
come is not very well authenticated. 


Now, as to the new exclusively Russian venture: Not 
having been able the year before to accomplish the con- 
templated return, Kuskov, representing the Russian Ameri- 
can Fur Company, was, on March 4, 1811, again at 
Bodega Bay, having been despatched from Sitka by 
Baranov, on board the Chirikov, on the 2d of February. 
Soon Aleuts in bidarkas were busily engaged in hunting otter 
in San Francisco Bay; while Kuskov was just as busily 
engaged in establishing, on a permanent basis, the already 


466 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


friendly relations with the aborigines. ‘The Russians had 
been very liberal with small gifts and beads, but, in addition 
to that, the natives themselves understood well the advan- 
tage of having them as allies, standing between them and 
the Spaniards—friends of other Indians, their enemies— 
toward whom there was a strong feeling of hostility. 
Whether it was at this time or later, there was some 
kind of ceding of territory, and the price paid the Indians, 
according to Payéras, who was given the information direct 
a year or so afterward, ‘‘was three blankets, three pairs of 
breeches, two axes, three hoes, and some beads” (ibid.). 


To the Russians, the territory north of the bay of San 


Francisco was ‘“‘New Albion,” and there was no recognition 
of Spanish occupation. The Aleuts brought by Kuskov 
were joined by others from the Albatross and Isabella, and 
the share of the Kuskov party that season was twelve hun- 
dred skins. Obtaining a supply of sea-lion meat from the 
Farallones, Kuskov took his departure on July 1, arriving 
at Sitka on August 8. 


Kuskov, in the Chirikov, was again sent south by Baranov 
with the entire paraphernalia for the founding of a settle- 
ment in New Albion. ‘This seems to have been in the spring 
of 1812. About one hundred men of Russian blood, twenty- 
five being mechanics, and eighty Aleuts were sent. San 
Francisco Bay was not to be the scene of the otter hunt 
at this time, and the Aleuts in their bidarkas were put to 
work along the coast. 

Weak as were the Spanish forces, it was evident that the 
Russian American Fur Company’s expedition was to be 
installed, if possible, before the Spaniards were cognizant 
of their return. While the Aleuts were making their catch, 


the Russians were preparing timber at the site chosen for — 


the settlement, about eighteen miles farther up the coast 
than Bodega and about eight or ten miles beyond the mouth 
of the Slavianska—the Russian River. 


: 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 467 


A fairly level strip of land had been selected, more than 
a square mile in extent, overhanging the sea, averaging 
seventy feet above the water line, the entire coast frontage 
being a precipice. The back was almost equally well pro- 
tected by a network of ravines, with just one way in. 

When the redwoods, of which everything was to be con- 
structed, had been felled, the Aleuts were recalled to assist 
the artisans. Everything went forward so systematically 
and well that, in a few months, the settlement (more like 
a fortress than a fur-trading post) was complete. The 
stockade, pierced with loopholes, surrounding a quadrangle 
two hundred and fifty by three hundred feet, was built of 
heavy beams set upright, side by side, in the ground, with 
another laid along the top, bristling with sharp iron and 
wooden points. Cannon were mounted in the loopholed 
hexagonal towers at the corners. Within the enclosure 
were the commandant’s house, with glass windows, and 
comfortably furnished; a chapel, which was also a defense 
tower, decorated with paintings; officers’ quarters, barracks 
for the Russian employees, storehouses, and domestic 
offices. Some of the buildings were two stories, and there 
was a well for emergency use. Cannon on carriages, ready 
for use, were at convenient places. 

They were now established in New Albion; and, as yet, 
no protest had come from the Spaniards, their neighbors 
in Alta California. However, the Spaniards knew, if not 
all, a very great deal, but were powerless to prevent what 
was going on. | 

Remembering good hunting, a few Aleuts had ventured 
into San Francisco Bay, and were seen by the comandante, 
Luis Argiiello, himself, who sent out native scouts to find 
out from whence they had come. Returning, they reported 
a vessel on the beach north of Bodega. 

This was in July; and on August 25, Lieutenant Gabriel 
Moraga was despatched to get at the bottom of it all. 
Moraga arrived, to find the Russian settlement an accom- 


468 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


plished fact. He was courteously received, and saw much, 
so much that he was sent, directly upon his return, to report 
in person to the governor at Monterey. 

Without an interpreter, communication had been difficult; 
but of this, the Russian chroniclers make no mention, con- 
tenting themselves with saying that Moraga inspected 
everything and had been given a full explanation of the 
company’s plans. Moraga did understand, even without 
an interpreter, their keen desire for trade, their need of 
foodstuffs, and that they wished to barter merchandise of 
various kinds for grain, meat, and tallow. To Arrillaga, 
he reported that they had been at, and north of, Bodega, 
for five months; had built a fort; had artillery; and were 
there to stay. 

On September 10, just after Moraga’s visit, the estab- 
lishment was formally dedicated and named “Ross” (the 
root of the word Rossiia or, in English, Russia). 

In the long ago, Russians were known as “people of 
Ross.”’ 


There was no spiritual side to the coming of the Rus- 
sians. [here was no Cross with the Sword behind it; no 
such complications as the conversion of the natives. It 
was strictly business. “There were just two objects in the 
founding of Ross: fur gathering and trade with the 
Spaniards. 

Conditions were peculiarly favorable to the Russians. 
Owing to the continued nonarrival of the transports with 
clothing and other necessaries, resistance to the inducement 
offered by their new neighbors on the north, unhampered 
by laws against trade, was below normal in the Spaniards: 
Spain was a long way off; the intermediary, the viceroyalty, 
was otherwise occupied; their own need was very great; 
their women and children were in rags. Against such odds, 
human nature is not adamantine. Conditions had to be 
met there—where they were—and not in Mexico or Spain! 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 469 


No further explanation, and scarcely this, is necessary for 
what followed. 

In January, 1813, Moraga was sent again to Ross, evi- 
dently for a pourparler on trade, taking with him, as a 
gift, twenty cattle and three horses. The Russian American 
Fur Company’s proclamation of 1810, seeking to establish 
commercial relations with the Spaniards in the Californias, 
which was to have been used earlier, and which had been 
sent to Baja California and, it may be, also to Alta Cali- 
fornia, was shown him, and the details of the proposed 
plan explained. 

The Russians state, and, says Bancroft, ‘There is no 
good reason to doubt the accuracy of the Russian state- 
ment,” that Moraga had brought verbal announcement that 
Governor Arrillaga had consented to trade at that time; 
but that what might be done in the future would depend 
upon the decision of the viceroy. Goods were to be sent 
down in boats, but no vessel of the Russian American Com- 
pany was to enter the ports of Alta California. 

Moraga returned to San Francisco on the 27th, and a 
few days later was again despatched to report in person to 
the governor, and was, also, the bearer of a letter from 
Luis Argiiello, telling him of the absolute destitution of the 
soldiers. [his was a tremendously effective argument in 
favor of relief from any source, when used to one who was 
spoken of by his troops as “Papa Arrillaga.” 

Under date of February 4, the governor informed the 
viceroy of the result of Moraga’s visits. 

Meanwhile the verbal consent to an exchange of com- 
modities, transmitted personally by Moraga, was produc- 
tive of results, with relief for both parties to the transac- 
tion, Russians and Spaniards, the natural outcome of an 
unnatural situation, a condition so impossible that, of itself, 
it could not continue. There are no Spanish records to 
show that a cargo in boats, valued at fourteen thousand 
dollars, arrived at San Francisco, for which breadstuffs were 


470 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


exchanged. There is no Spanish record, anywhere, to indi- 
cate that either governor or comandante consented at that 
time—or ever would consent—to trade, without being duly 
and properly authorized by the viceroy. It must have been 
that silence gave consent! 

This was a beginning and trade continued between these 
provincial neighbors, very quietly, it is true, both carefully 
avoiding embroiling their respective governments—just a 
little friendly trafic outside the law. But, while it went 
on seemingly and almost quite openly, it had no place in 
oficial records. 

The viceroy had already been informed, in a roundabout 
way, of the arrival of the Russians, and, suspecting an 
Anglo-American ruse, cautioned Arrillaga. In his reply of 
August 3 to the governor’s letter, he enclosed the treaty 
between Russia and Spain, signed on July 20 of the pre- 
ceding year. He wished Kuskov warned that he was at 
Bodega in direct violation of the treaty, and was requested 
to remove his company’s establishments before it became 
necessary to report the matter officially. 

After the receipt of these communications, Moraga was, 
for the third time, the envoy, and was despatched to Ross 
in April, 1814, with Gervasio Argiello, another son of 
Don José Dario, as escort, with letters from Arrillaga to 
Kuskov making known the viceroy’s instructions. 

Kuskoév could not reply officially; Baranov would have 
to be communicated with; nevertheless, in June, he wrote 
to Arrillaga that, notwithstanding Lieutenant Moraga’s 
explanations, his letter had not been clearly understood— 
a threadbare excuse made use of by both Russians and 
Spaniards whenever it was convenient not to understand. 
Kuskov was clearly ‘“‘playing for time,” and postponing the 
evil day of an issue in the matter, hoping that in some 
miraculous manner it might be averted. He made a formal 
demand for some Kadiak captives, who had sought shelter 
in the bay during a storm with no ulterior motive whatever; 


a ln 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 471 


and for some others who had deserted. He wrote that a 
certain tent had been left, at a former time, at San Fran- 
cisco; and would Governor Arrillaga accept it as a gift? 
(The tent—diplomatically speaking—may have “been 
left,” but—literally—it had not ‘“‘been left,” for it was 
sent to San Francisco at the same time as the letter!) 
Kuskov wrote also to the comandante, enclosing a Spanish 
letter to be interpreted, as it could not be understood, and 
asked for the return of the Aleuts. 

The viceroy’s notification to the Russians to abandon 
Ross had no effect on illicit trade, the usual cargo being 
sent to San Francisco as though nothing had happened; and 
disposed of without trouble, under the protection of the 
comandante himself ! 


In June, 1814, while on a tour of inspection, Governor 
Arrillaga became ill. Earlier in the year, he had had 
malignant fever but, seemingly, had entirely recovered. 
Now, seriously ill, he turned in the hour of his need to 
his old friend, Fray Florencio Ybanez, going to Soledad 
to be cared for by him; and there he died on Sunday, July 
24, at the age of sixty-four years. 

According to the terms of his will, made only a short 
time before his death, he was to be buried at the mission 
where he might chance to die, shrouded in the habit of the 
Franciscan order. One hundred masses for the repose of 
his soul were to be said at each of the two missions, San 
Miguel and San Antonio, for which the sum of six hundred 
pesos was provided. 

José Joaquin de Arrillaga, a noble by birth, was a native 
of Aya, Guipuzcoa, Spain. He never married. We read 
that he was tall and fair, with blue eyes; witty and frank 
in conversation; and, as an official, possessed of a becoming 
sternness considered by Spaniards essential. 

It is not difficult to understand Arrillaga. He was not 
complex. His character, reflected in his acts and unblurred 


ATR SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


by time, is clearly defined. He was an upright man; reli- 
able; possessed of great perseverance—shown in the years 
of skillful work given to the untangling of California 
accounts; neglecting nothing in ordinary matters of routine. 
He either had little initiative or saw no need for it and 
followed orders as nearly to the letter as was possible. The 
record of José Joaquin de Arrillaga, from the beginning of 
his career is without blemish. 

Promotion followed in its own natural order. ‘There 
was no brilliant dash to fame. He had more ability than 
ambition; there is a certain apathy perceptible that is typi- 
cally Spanish: an underlying even tenor in his rule, which 
has nothing to do with events—characteristic of the man 
himself; and his administration was so evenly, quietly good 
that it is lacking in brilliance and stamped with mediocrity. 

Loyal to his country; a churchman, but no bigot; 
respected by the friars, but never frailero; a just discipli- 
narian, revered by his troops; loved by his friends and a 
welcome guest, he does not leave one cold, unresponsive, 
as did Neve, nor does he attract by the strength of an 
uneven personality, as did Fages. 


Without any formal appointment, Captain José Dario 
Argiiello, by seniority now became interino. He did not 
take up his official residence at Monterey during his brief 
term, but remained most of the time at Santa Barbara. 
He was much less friendly with the new neighbors at Ross 
than had been Arrillaga or the comandante at San Fran- 
cisco, his own son Luis, to whom indications point, if 
indications mean anything, as responsible, in the recent 
amelioration of conditions in both colonies, for the illicit— 
—if one wishes to be literal and prosaic—interchange of 
commodities. 

Among the meager records of Argtello’s brief incum- 
bency, his peremptory letter to Kuskov early in 1815 stands 
out in high relief, in which, besides expressing surprise that 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 473 


Arrillaga’s letter of inquiry had not been answered, he 
informed him that, according to the viceroy’s orders, if 
friendly relations were to be maintained between Spain 
and Russia, Ross must be abandoned. Kuskovy replied that 
orders would have to come from Baranov, his superior,— 
and trade continued. 

This outburst on the part of the interino has been the 
subject of some speculation and has been accounted for in 
several and quite different ways, the most logical being 
that the viceroy’s orders referred to by Argiiello had just 
arrived and that they had not been taken to Ross by Moraga 
as has been stated—and this is borne out by the statements 
of the Russians; that Moraga had been the bearer of a 
preliminary letter of inquiry—Argtello’s letter connotes 
this—as to the reason for the presence of the Russians, 
diplomatically leading up to a request to withdraw. ‘This 
seems to be a reasonable interpretation. 


Meanwhile, on the last day of the preceding year, 
December 31, 1814, Viceroy Calleja had appointed a suc- 
cessor to Arrillaga, a propietario for Alta California; and, 
at the same time, had appointed the interino, Captain Don 
José Dario Argiello, Governor of Baja California. 


XXX VIII 


Lieutenant Colonel Don Pablo Vicente de Sola, the new 
governor, was a native of Spain, a Basque, as were his 
immediate predecessors, Arrillaga and Borica. 

He took the oath of office at Guadalajara on March 31, 
1815, before General Don José de la Cruz. He had once 
before, in 1805-7, served the province in official capacity, 
as temporary habilitado general in Mexico. 

Sailing from San Blas on the Paz y Religion, Governor 
Sola arrived at Monterey on August 30, having been 
between seventy-five and eighty days en voyage. 


In anticipation of his arrival, great preparations had 
been made. The several distinguished visitors, accompanied 
by men of science, who had honored Alta California ports, 
La Pérouse, Vancouver, and Rezanov, had been hospitably 
entertained as well as circumstances had permitted and not 
discreditably to the province. Now, however, a new polit- 
ico-social pace was to be set and the propietario was to be 
received befittingly. 

Besides officers and friars from north and south, every 
one who could—even Indians—arrived to do him honor, 
to take part in the ceremonies or to see what was to be seen. 

The great day was inaugurated with pomp and ceremony, 
when Padre Presidente Senan, followed by twenty friars, all 
in full canonicals, and they by thirty neophytes clad in bright 
colors, musicians and singers with Jose el Cantor at the 
head, marched in formal procession to the presidio chapel, 
where they were joined by the governor, officers, and sol- 
diers, heralded by salutes of artillery. 

The friars took their respective places at the altar; the 


[474] 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 475 


Indian choir ranged itself near by, with violins, viols, flutes, 
and drums in readiness. Two lines of soldiers stood at 
attention; and, as the governor entered, passing between 
them, Te Deum Laudamus soared upward to the ‘‘Lord 
God of Sabaoth” and heaven and earth were full of the 
majesty of His glory! 

At intervals, discharges of musketry and cannon in the 
plaza stressed the religious ceremonies, continuing through 
the entire high mass, which was followed by an eloquent 
discourse appropriate to the occasion, delivered by the 
padre presidente. 

After mass, standing in front of the flagstaff, from which 
floated the royal flag of Spain, Governor Sola reviewed 
the troops and then made a speech, punctuated, for him, 
with many vivas and a prolonged flourish of them as a 
finale. This concluded the first part of the elaborate 
program. 

A magnificent repast had been prepared and now awaited 
the attention of the governor, who was greeted at the ban- 
quet hall by a bevy of young girls, all in white, the most 
beautiful in the province, each in turn kissing his hand 
and each receiving a gift of bonbons from him. Then, one 
of their number, Dona Magdalena FEstudillo, made a 
formal, gracefully worded little address of welcome, wish- 
ing His Excellency a long and successful administration. 
The flower-decked tables were laden with the best of every- 
thing the country produced, fish, meat, game, vegetables, 
fruit, and the wonderful products of the missions: olives 
from San Diego, wines from San Fernando, and, as a 
climax, pastries made with flour from San Antonio. After 
the feast, an exhibition of horsemanship by soldiers dressed 
as Vaqueros was witnessed. 

Already a well-filled day, the great event, never omitted 
when it could be managed, was now staged: a pawing bull 
was first introduced; then four vaqueros brought a bear 
into the arena—a grizzly, snarling and snapping; around 


476 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


each of his legs was drawn a reata, taut, the other end 
skillfully managed by one of the four men. The two beasts 
were then fastened together by a chain long enough to allow 
free movement. The reatas were removed and—the bull- 
and-bear fight was on! 

In the evening, there was a grand ball at the house of 
the comandante, which lasted until the dawn of the next 
day. 

Governor Sola was also entertained formally at Mission 
San Carlos. His appointment had been received with joy 
by the friars, the guardian at San Fernando having 
informed them that he had a brother at the college. ‘This 
brother, Faustino, who, prior to 1790, had been for a time 
in Alta California, was insane—and had been so for twenty- 
five years! 


Evidently, Don Pablo Vicente de Sola brought with him 
to Alta California well-defined ideas—theories—as to his 
duty in the matter of the Russo-Hispanic situation on the 
northwest coast; and, almost at once, they were to be put 
to the acid test. 

Otter catching had gone merrily on, bringing forth noth- 
ing much officially beyond perfunctory protests. Trade had 
continued. 

Vessels, Russian, with sometimes a partly American per- 
sonnel, and American—singly and in fleets—with and with- 
out Russian contracts, came down the coast, questing, in 
this process of extermination, not only seals and sea otters, 
but anything covered with fur. One log, that of 1810-11, 
of the Albatross—Captain Nathan Winship; mate, William 
Smith—reveals what, in the way of animals, an ingather- 
ing meant. In this list we find: beaver, raccoon, wildcat, 
land otter, fox, mink, gray squirrel, muskrat, mole, and one 
solitary skunk. 

The f/’men’, purchased in 1813 by Baranov, was sent 
down the coast under an American master, with a cargo 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA ATT 


of merchandise in charge of another American, Juan Eliot 
de Castro, and with a band of Aleut hunters on board under 
Boris Tarakanov. This combination had been so success- 
ful that many otter skins, thousands of dollars, and large 
quantities of grain had gone back to Sitka. 

Dazzled by success, heedless or unaware of the policy 
of the new governor, warnings to quit the coast had no 
meaning for them. On September 1, 1815, while daringly 
plying their trade at San Pedro, Tarakanov and twenty 
Aleuts were captured by Comisionado Cota, of Los Angeles, 
and incontinently jailed at the pueblo. A few days later, 
Eliot de Castro, with another American, four Russians, and 
an Aleut, landed near San Luis Obispo; and they, too, were 
captured. Manifestly, Sola’s theories were in excellent 
working order. 

This unexpected lightning from a cloudless California 
sky sent the //’men’ scudding away from the coast. A stop 
was made at Ross, however, and, as a consequence, protests 
were received from Kuskov. 

In October, the captives were taken to Santa Barbara 
and Monterey, the officers being treated with punctilious 
courtesy but the rest being made to work for their rations 
like any other prisoners. Some of the Aleuts, who were 
trustingly sent out in their bidarkas by the Spaniards to 
catch otter, made good their escape and returned to Ross. 


Despite repeated orders from viceroy and governor to 
the Russians at Ross to keep out of Spanish ports, they 
did not do so. Only a short time before the arrival of 
Governor Sola, the Suvdrov, going south to Callao on her 
way to St. Petersburg, had put in at San Francisco for 
water and fresh provisions, but had taken full advantage 
of the opportunity to dispose of a large part of her cargo 
of merchandise. The fl’men’ and Chirikov had also vis- 
ited the port and had sailed away well laden with grain, 
which was sent to Sitka on the Chirikov. 


478 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


The situation was no more pleasing to Sola than it had 
been to the interino, Argtello, and on September 26, less 
than a month after his arrival, he called upon the coman- 
dante at San Francisco, Luis Argtello, “for a report on 
past visits of Russians to San Francisco, the supplies fur- 
nished, and how they had been paid for. He also seems 
to have sent orders to Ross forbidding the illegal entry 
of all foreign vessels into Californian ports’ (Bancroft). 

In July or August, prior to the arrival of Governor Sola, 
Captain Jennings of the schooner Columbia, belonging to 
the Northwest Company (British), lately established on 
the Columbia River, had submitted a commercial propo- 
sition to Argiello which he had promised to forward with 
a recommendation to the viceroy. The viceroy and his 
advisers saw nothing in the proposition except a desire to 
gain a footing on Spanish soil on the northwest coast and, 
incidentally, to procure otter skins while reconnoitering 
the country. The English were to be carefully watched. 
Nothing was to go farther than the ordinary require- 
ments of international hospitality; and the proposition 
was refused. 

In January, 1816, the Albatross—Captain William 
Smith—long known on the coast, and the Lydia—Captain 
Henry Gyzelaar, a Hollander—both man and ship new- 
comers, so it appeared, lay off shore at El Refugio, which 
was somewhat defiled by the pitch of contraband trade as 
the home of the Ortegas, who were suspected of being the 
go-betweens for the friars in their smuggling operations 
with craft thus engaged, which, touching at other points, 
kept out of the ports. The Ortegas grew rich at it. 

The two commanders came ashore with a few men and 
were swooped down on by the comandante of Santa Bar- 
bara, José de la Guerra y Noriega, assisted by Sergeant 
Carlos Carrillo and Cadet Santiago Argtello—still another 
son of Don José, who was now Governor of Baja Cali- 
fornia. 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 479 


The Lydia was seized by Carrillo and, as she was in 
danger of going to pieces in so exposed a situation, was 
taken to Santa Barbara. But the Albatross was more for- 
midable, and there was nothing to be done but to let her 
so when she sailed away, ostensibly to procure fresh sup- 
plies, with the promise of a return in eight days to see what 
fate had befallen her commander. With passports and 
other official documents in escrow—so to speak—and her 
commander held as a hostage, De la Guerra entertained 
the hope that she would return, in which case he would 
be in a position to effect her capture, but she did not, and 
Smith was left in the lurch. The prisoners were taken to 
the Presidio of Santa Barbara, where, according to Mrs. 
Ord, Gyzelaar was the guest of her father, the comandante, 
Don José de la Guerra. The Lydia was ordered to Mon- 
terey by Governor Sola, and went there under command 
of Gyzelaar, himself, manned by four of his own men and 
two of Smith’s, under guard of Sergeant Carrillo and six 
men. According to Bancroft, ‘Sola disapproved this act, 
facetiously likening it to a delivery of the church for pro- 
tection to Luther.” 

Smith was left at Santa Barbara. Both commanders 
pleaded the need of fresh supplies, and nothing else, as 
their reason for touching at El Refugio. Gyzelaar made 
a statement, signed by himself and all his men, that the 
Lydia could go no farther, and that he himself was new 
to the coast and had put in, in distress, at the first place 
he saw houses; that the Lydia, owned by the American 
consul at Canton, had completed a voyage with a cargo 
from China to Sitka and was now returning, via the Mar- 
quesas, with a small cargo of merchandise and a few otter 
skins. 

Pleading innocence of evil intentions, Gyzelaar begged 
to be released and, as there were ninety thousand dollars 
at stake on the voyage, allowed to proceed. There was 
no evidence on which to hold him and he was given his 


480 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


liberty. Smith, who had also piped up, and had, likewise, 
pleaded sinlessness, begged that, as he was old and infirm 
and as the Albatross might not return, he be sent away on 
the Lydia. The Lydia sailed, touching at Santa Barbara, 
and when she departed thence on March 15, Smith, with 
some of his men, was on board. “That the two captains 
came to Refugio for nothing but contraband trade there 
is little room for doubt.’”’ So says Bancroft. | 

The first permanent white settler, other than Spanish, 
in Alta California, was John Gilroy, a Scotchman, whose 
real name was Cameron, who came to the province in 1814. 
But the first American settler was one of Smith’s men, 
Thomas W. Doak, who remained at Monterey and “became 
a Christian’ —having been baptized at San Carlos on 
December 22 of the same year, 1816. Later, he was given 
permission by the viceroy to marry and settle, and, in 1820, 
at Mission San Juan Bautista, he married Maria Lugarda, 
a daughter of José Mariano de Castro. 


In June, 1816, despatches from Mazatlan via the Penin- 
sula brought word that both Guayaquil and Callao had 


been attacked by insurgentes from Buenos Aires, who also 


contemplated hostilities against the northern province. 
On the 23d, Governor Sola issued orders to all the 
comandantes to prepare for attack, which was to be resisted 


to the end—whatever it might be! M«£ilitia artillerymen 


(of whom not much seems to have been recorded since their 
organization by Alférez José Roca, in 1805-6) were to 
be called to the presidios for instruction and drill. Car- 
tridges were to be made and, should it be necessary, the 
least valuable of the archives might be used for the purpose. 
On the same day, a circular was sent to all the missions 
and the friars were instructed to have fifteen or twenty 
Indian vaqueros on call, armed with reatas, ready to go to 
their respective presidios. Friars were urged to spur them 
on to loyalty! Church valuables were to be boxed up in 


| 
| 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 481 


readiness for removal and, in case of attack, cattle were 
to be driven to the interior. 

Answers were promptly received—within the week— 
from all, that instructions were being carried out. 

The insurgentes did not arrive; but, because of them, 
no Lima ships were able to come up with merchandise to 
trade for tallow. The Flora (of the Mercury seizure 
fame) and the Tagle, her companion, both Peruvian coast- 
guard vessels, were the first to engage in this trade sanc- 
tioned by Spain to replace the San Blas supply transports, 
which were not sent. 

For the time, trade with the Russians seems to have 
ceased, owing, perhaps, to the decided stand taken by Gov- 
ernor Sola and the searching inquiries set in motion by 
him immediately upon his arrival; and there was great 
destitution in the province. 

The Columbia did not return, but, in the hour of most 
pressing need, in August of that year, in her stead came 
the good ship Colonel, with merchandise to exchange; and, 
thereupon, Don Pablo Vicente de Sola, Governor of Alta 
California, fell from grace, tore up his ideals and threw 
them away, as out of date and unsuited to the occasion. 
And, withal, he showed himself no coward. The viceroy’s 
orders, refusing the proffered trade, were at hand, and, 
despite those orders, yielding to the solicitations of his 
oficers, he obtained supplies from the missions and 
exchanged them for about seven thousand dollars’ worth 
of goods. 

There was no subterfuge, for the gallant gentleman 
made a clear and full report to the viceroy, confessing “‘his 
manifold sins and wickedness” in his flagrant disobedience 
of orders, and gave his reasons for it. He does not seem 
to have been reprimanded. 

Royal orders of June 27, 1815, resulted, on April 30, 
1816, in orders from Governor Sola to the comandantes 
that an expedition sent around the world in the interest 


482 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


of science and for exploration in the North Pacific, under 
command of Lieutenant Otto von Kotzebue of the Russian 
navy, on board the Rurik, might be expected; and that upon 
arrival, distinguished consideration was to be extended. 

This expedition had arrived in Pacific waters via Cape 
Horn, stopping for repairs at Talcaguano, Chile, on the 
way north. Explorations having been made in Kamchatka 
and Alaska, the Rurik was headed south from Unalaska 
on September 14, and, on October 2, dropped anchor in 
San Francisco Bay, where Kotzebue was received by the 
comandante, Luis Argiello. 

Copies of passports and of various official documents 
presented by the explorer were forwarded to the governor 
together with a letter, written in French, dated October 5, 
from Kotzebue to Sola, in which he presents his respects 
and thanks him for the courteous reception which has been 
accorded him; and says, in substance, that he is pleased to 
hear that His Excellency expects to visit San Francisco 
during the stay of the Rurik, which, he adds, will not be 
longer-than fifteen days, the object of his visit being to 
obtain fresh supplies in order to continue his voyage. 

Many attentions were shown Kotzebue, the scientific 
corps, and the officers. It is unnecessary to state that one 
affair, arranged in their honor, was a grand bull-and-bear 
fight at the presidio. On the gth, that being the fiesta of 
San Francisco, the patron of the mission, they were enter- 
tained by the friars at Dolores; and on the 16th, Governor 
Sola arrived to add his personal welcome to that vicari- 
ously extended by the comandante,; but etiquette proper to 
the occasion was nearly the cause of disaster. Already 
one blunder had been made (a salute of seven guns from 
the Rurik having been answered by one of five guns from 
the fort); and now a question as to which, governor or 
commander, was to make the first official visit threatened 
to halt civilities: both seem to have been sticklers, and each 
exacted it of the other. A deadlock was about to ensue 


eo 


a ee ee ae ae 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 483 


and Sola to return to Monterey when, luckily, Kotzebue 
came ashore to make his noon observations and, in some 
way, this was tactfully taken advantage of in the solution 
of the problem and the path was cleared for future 
amenities ! 


The Spaniards were of two minds regarding the Rus- 
sians: beckoning them on to exchange commodities with 
one hand, while desiring in their hearts to push them off the 
precipice at Ross with the other. 

The higher officials were indignant at the behavior of 
Kuskov and poured out their grievances to Kotzebue, 
who, while he had not the least authority in the matter, 
not only lent an attentive ear but requested Kuskov to come 
to San Francisco that the matter might be discussed and 
a statement for presentation to the Russian government 
prepared. 

Kuskov came on the 25th, and very loath to come he 
must have been, for there was nothing less to his taste 
than a report to the government, even if it should only 
temporarily impede his activities as the agent of the Rus- 
sian American Fur Company. 

After a conference held at the presidio, at which Adel- 
bert von Chamisso—the botanist and one of the naturalists 
of the expedition—had acted as interpreter, a formal paper 
was drawn up, which would seem to have been merely a 
record of proceedings—very full minutes of the meeting, 
embodying Sola’s statements that Kuskov had planted the 
Russian American Fur Company’s establishment on Span- 
ish territory and when called upon by the viceroy to with- 
draw had not done so, nor had he been able to get definite 
answers from Kuskov to his letters; also that at the con- 
ference, Kuskév had refused to discuss the matter; and 
that Kotzebue had stated that he had no authority to act 
but would submit the matter to his government. 

This document, signed by Kotzebue, Kuskov, Chamisso, 


484 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


as interpreter, and Luis Argiiello and José Maria Estudillo, 
as witnesses, was sent, later, along the proper channels in 
St. Petersburg, but it was not acted upon. 

While this solemn sanhedrin was in progress, Kuskov, 
with the consent of Kotzebue, sent out two bidarkas to 
catch otter in the bay! 

During the sojourn of Kotzebue, the transport San 
Carlos arrived, having on board Eliot de Castro and Boris 
Tarakanov, who had been sent to San Blas the year before 
on the Paz y Religion. 

Juan Eliot de Castro! The name arrests one’s attention. 
There is something out of the ordinary twisting of names 
with which we are familiar in these pages. Eliot de Castro, 
on the //’men’, an American; is referred to as an English- 
man; written of as a native of Portgual; and loses part 
of his name in the documents in Alta California, where he 
appears as Don Juan Eliot, the Spanish rendering of “John 
Eliot,” the name he signed to a paper which is in the Sitka 
archives. 

On the San Carlos, upon her return to the south, went 
Alférez Gervasio Argiiello as habilitado general for Cali- 
fornia in Mexico. 

On November 1, after a stay of a month, lacking one 
day, the Rurik sailed; and going with Kotzebue, on his way 
to the Hawaiian Islands, was Eliot de Castro, of whom 
Padre Martinez writes, ‘‘in a letter of Dec. 11th, that 
unless he mends his ways he will go hence ‘to hell— 
not because I will send him there, for I am not in the 
service of devils, but because he so wishes it’”’ (Bancroft, 
note). Of his ultimate destination, we have, of course, 
no record; but in Hawaii, he evidently mended his ways 
sufficiently to become secretary of state to the king. 


Although much space is given to Alta California in the 
three books published as a result of this expedition, only 
a passing reference to them is necessary. Kotzebue’s strikes 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 485 


no note, in his criticisms either of Spanish policy or of the 
mission system, which had not been sounded before by La 
Pérouse, Vancouver, and others. He says that the natives 
are ugly and stupid, which we know from many other 
sources, but he gives no inside information as to his con- 
ferences with the Spaniards in regard to Ross. 

Chamisso deals with the same subjects—now hackneyed 
to us—but in a somewhat charming way, and does not 
further fray them at the edges. He says: ‘“‘ ‘Only a smug- 
gling trade, which the new governor has tried to suppress, 
furnishes this province with the most indispensable articles. 
Spain has given way in the affair of Nootka. England and 
the U. S. . . . are now negotiating about the colony at 
the mouth of the Columbia; and the Russ. Am. Co. have 
still a settlement a few leagues north of San Francisco’ ”’ 
(Bancroft, note). 

A Russian traveler and artist with the expedition, Louis 
or Ludwig Choris, was responsible for the third: a book 
of lithographic reproductions of his drawings, with inter- 
esting descriptions by Chamisso and others. 

Another distinguished member of the expedition, the 
physician and one of the naturalists, was Johann Friedrich 
von Eschscholtz, whose name has been perpetuated in the 
botanical name of the California poppy, the state flower— 
the golden glory of the mesas. 

Although the month was October and the country dry 
and brown—the season long passed when California sings 
her hymn of praise in flowers, for the mere fact of being 
what she is—Chamisso and Eschscholtz scoured the sand- 
hills about San Francisco, and went as far afield as they 
were permitted, making drawings after the manner of 
botanists—of flowers, leaves, plants, roots, seeds, and seed 
pods—and securing seeds with which to experiment in 
Europe. Among the plants studied and the seeds gathered 
was the poppy. The seeds grew and prospered, and it 
was not long before this bit of California sunshine, e/ 


486 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


capitan de las flores—the captain of the flowers—was to 
be found in gardens in various parts of Europe. The name 
was bestowed upon it by Chamisso, in honor of his friend; 
and among the plates in the many volumes representing 
the years given by him to botanical research, is one of 
Eschscholtzia Californica. 


XXXIX 


Trade with the Russians was at a standstill when, in 
October, 1816, during the Kotzebue sojourn, the San 
Carlos, the first supply ship since 1810, arrived. There 
was great rejoicing until it was discovered that the cargo 
was made up of war stores and damaged supplies; but such 
as could be used were not to be despised, for no ships came 
up from Pert that year. 

The next year, no supply transports were despatched 
from San Blas for Alta California. This was not so serious 
as it might have been, because two Lima ships, the Hermosa 
Mexicana and the San Antonio, arrived with merchandise 
to exchange for tallow. Another vessel, the Cazadora, 
from Panama, came with the same object. 

Most of the grain and tallow going away in ships bring- 
ing merchandise came from the missions. The missions 
were carrying the province. True, the friars were paid— 
always paid—with drafts on the treasury—that were never 
honored. It is reasonably safe to say that, when they took 
the bits of paper, they knew they never would be! There 
was a little rumbling of discontent, a little grumbling occa- 
sionally, but not much, for, from the first, the thought that 
present conditions were but temporary, that the revolu- 
tion would be quelled kept up the courage of all, the friars 
with the rest. So detached from the realities, so far away 
were they, that always just before them they saw Peace' 

But, in the matter of this tallow, there was a decided 
hitch and much correspondence. The governor was in 
favor of its exportation, but he was also in favor of some- 
thing else not so agreeable to the friars, for, out of the 
large accumulation then at the missions, he wished a small 
amount turned over to each presidio to be used in lieu of 


[ 487 ] 


488 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


money by the soldiers—who, in these troublous times in 
the viceroyalty, were receiving no pay—to purchase neces- 
sary articles from these vessels. ‘The friars themselves 
were getting neither their stipends nor, as formerly, the 
equivalent in goods, and this proposition was received by 
them with a total lack of enthusiasm. ‘They preferred to 
manage the disposal of the tallow from the missions in 
their own way and without intervention, either to the ships 
or in sending it to Mexico. But even this difficulty was 
resolved in some way. All three ships sailed with full 
cargoes, the Cazadora with the others, notwithstanding 
that, under date of July 12, 1816, the viceroy, in instruc- 
tions to Sola, had forbidden trade with Panama. The 
Hermosa Mexicana paid five hundred and eighteen dollars 
in export duties, as a convenience to California, which, in 
the usual routine, would have been paid at Callao. Also, 
there was trade this year with the Russians. 

Although Viceroy Calleja had not expressed disapproval 
of what had been done in the way of an exchange of grain 
for merchandise needed for the soldiers, the Russians were 
not to be allowed to inform themselves as to actual con- 
ditions, nor were their vessels to enter the ports. And, 
later, orders were received by Sola to force them to aban- 
don Ross; and, in order to effect this, he was at liberty to 
seek aid from the rulers of other provinces. Governor 
Sola did not attempt to execute this order, but replied, in 
substance, that unless substantial reénforcements were fur- 
nished, it could not be done; and, in the matter of securing 
cooperation from other provinces, he called the attention 
of the viceroy to their distance from Alta California. 

In March of that year, 1817, Lieutenant Podushkin was 
sent down from Sitka by Baranov, on the Chirikov, osten- 
sibly to bring back Russian and Aleut prisoners who had 
not been returned to Kuskoév; but the real object of the 
visit was the usual one: the urge for trade. 

At San Francisco, the Chirikov did not enter the harbor, 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 489 


the officers going ashore in bidarkas. Permission to con- 
tinue the journey to Monterey, overland, was asked by 
Podushkin and was refused by Comandante Argiiello. 

At Monterey, Governor Sola delivered up fifteen pris- 
oners, among whom was Boris Tarakanov. ‘There were 
others who could not be rounded up; and some had married 
and were allowed to remain. Permanent trade was dis- 
cussed and a proposition, which included otter catching in 
partnership, was made by Podushkin in behalf of the Rus- 
sian American Fur Company; but to neither was Sola able 
to give a definite answer. 

The Chirikov was allowed to take away a cargo of grain; 
and when Podushkin returned to Sitka in June, he was the 
bearer of a letter dated May 5, from Sola, in which, logi- 
cally leading up to it, he frankly asks Baranoy to “ ‘remove 
every cause of complaint’” and to withdraw the Russian 
establishment at Bodega beyond the Spanish limits, the 
Strait of Fuca; and says, in substance, that with this matter 
settled, the king might be more inclined to listen to his 
proposals. 

In January, 1818, Baranov was succeeded by Hagemeis- 
ter; on April 16 of the next year, while on his way to 
Russia on board the Kutuzov, he died and was buried at sea. 


Details are not necessary as to the comings and going 
of various Russian vessels during the next few years. Ships 
came with goods, some of them not even touching at Ross 
on their way to Alta California ports, and ships departed 
with grain. In other words, excepting in 1819, in which 
year no Russian vessels seem to have arrived, trade con- 
tinued. To the Russians, it was evidently important 
enough to warrant at least two visits from Hagemeister 
and to be worthy of attention from Golovnin, who was on 
the way around the world on the Kamchatka investigating 
Russian interests. Both seem to have been at Monterey 
in the autumn of 1818. 


490 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


Seeking to meet the situation, of which he disapproved, 
in a better way, Sola offered to pay for a cargo of Russian 
goods with drafts on Guadalajara, which offer was refused 
by Hagemeister, who proposed that payment be made in 
otter skins and that they, themselves, would catch the little 
animals. ‘This, in his turn, Sola quite as promptly refused. 

On August 5, 1817, the Bordelais arrived at San Fran- 
cisco, the first ship flying the French flag to enter the port, 
traded merchandise for fresh provisions and a few otter 
skins and, after a stay of nine days, proceeded on her way 
to Sitka. On October 16, she was back at San Francisco, 
remaining until November 20, when, the business which 
had brought her transacted, she again departed. The 
Bordelais was commanded by Lieutenant Camille de Roque- 
feuil of the French navy, but was nevertheless a merchant 
ship, carrying a cargo of French goods, sent out from 
Bordeaux to compete with American and Russian trading 
craft—a private venture—and had arrived in Pacific waters 
around Cape Horn, touching at South American ports on 
her way up the coast. 

After a trip to the Marquesas and the north coast, 
Roquefeuil, mixed up in Russian affairs, came down from 
Sitka to secure a cargo of grain with which to fulfill a 
contract; and the Bordelais cast anchor for the third time 
in the harbor of San Francisco, on September 20, 1818, 
remaining for one month, at which time (it seems reason- 
ably safe to say) Hagemeister and Golovnin were in Alta 
California. 


A general tour of inspection begun by Governor Sola 
at San Francisco, in 1817, including every presidio, pueblo, 
and mission from there to San Diego, resulted, in 1818, 
in many recommendations to the viceroy. 

Sola was by nature more optimistic than Arrillaga, which 
is reflected in his reports; and while investigating the needs 


Oe gg ee ee ee eee “a 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 491 


of the province staring at him from whatever direction 
he might turn, he was, at the same time, keenly alive to 
resources near at hand. To him, the finest lands in Cali- 
fornia were those belonging to Mission San Gabriel, where 
there was also an abundance of water. 

San Gabriel was, in fact, a banner mission. Although 
Padre Zalvidea, perhaps an indifferent agriculturist, had 
complained that the land was exhausted and that, in con- 
sequence, crops had to be put in at La Puente, several 
leagues away, where six hundred Indians were then at work 
—and needing a chapel; and despite squirrels, gophers, 
grasshoppers, desert winds, and an occasional drought, San 
Gabriel—wherever the crops may have been planted— 
stood, in 1820, second, for the decade, in agriculture. 

Arrillaga had held out no encouragement as to the pos- 
sibility of the existence of the precious metals in the prov- 
ince, while Sola, with more vision, advised that there was 
every possibility. 

It is not to be supposed that there was any real awaken- 
ing as to potentialities in mineral wealth hidden in the 
mountains buttressing, on the east, the great valley back 
of the Coast Range, but there was a rumor that gold had 
been discovered near San Luis Obispo; that a small amount 
of silver had been extracted by smelting;—with whisper- 
ings of secret doings, along these lines, at the missions. 
And the Ortegas, whose acquisitiveness was well devel- 
oped, had a mine. 

Schools had not received much if any attention during 
Arrillaga’s apathetic administration. Sola had, however, 
found one, at least, already established at Monterey, with 
Corporal Miguel Archuleta, who had been taught to read 
and write by Padre Ybafiez, installed as teacher. In 1817, 
Sola wrote the viceroy that during the two years he had 
been in office, education in the province had made consider- 
able progress. And in his report of 1817-18, he mentions 
with evident satisfaction that—now is implied—there was 


492 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


a primary school at each of the two pueblos and four 
presidios, where religion, reading, writing, and arithmetic 
were taught by a settler or retired soldier of good character. 

Generally, even the most rudimentary education does not 
seem to have been thought necessary for girls, many being 
taken out of school by their parents, to be married, before 
even the simple course of study provided had been com- 
pleted. 

Governor Sola felt the need of education in Alta Cali- 
fornia, and three schools, two for boys and one for girls, 
are said to have been partly supported by him. For the 
time and place, he was very progressive, urging that there 
might be some sort of college where a few of the more 
intelligent neophytes might be trained as instructors for 
their own race; and that there might be some place where 
the neophyte girls would be away from the influence of 
their own families and friends. 

The friars took no notice of these altruistic ideas and 
no encouragement came from Mexico. 


Prior to 1817, when the idea of an asistencia to the 
mission at Dolores took shape, nothing had been done 
toward an establishment, presidio, pueblo, or mission, north 
of San Francisco. 

It is broadly hinted that it was thought advisable to keep 
a strip of Spanish territory between their Russian neighbors 
and the bay, and at the same time to find a ready market 
for their produce at Ross. But there was always the urge 
to extend missionary work, and, in order to gain a safer 
footing, the Spaniards were, by prearrangement, endeavor- 
ing to force the aborigines gradually farther back. And 
now looming up was the shadowy prospect of secularization 
with the consequent moving on of the missionaries to new 
fields which must be in readiness. But, in this instance, 
if these were factors, they seem to have been secondary, 
for the principal reason for another establishment at this 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 493 


time was the ill health and terrible mortality among the 
neophytes at Dolores—so great, indeed, that a panic among 
them was feared. 

From the journeyings to Ross had come the knowledge 
of a milder climate north of the bay; and, at the suggestion 
of Governor Sola, some of the neophytes in failing health 
were sent across, with such satisfactory results that the 
experiment gave rise to the idea of something permanent: 
a place where the ailing or the less hardy neophytes might 
be sent. 

The Sola plan was well thought of by the padre presi- 
dente, but it seemed to be beyond the possibility of attain- 
ment. Communication would be difficult; but more insur- 
mountable was the fact that there were no friars available 
to take charge, the College of San Fernando no longer 
sending new ones, an effect of conditions in Mexico felt 
in the province. He hesitated, therefore, about any official 
step toward a formal establishment being taken at that 
time. But the death of several of the neophytes at the 
experimental station, without benefit of clergy, precipitated 
the matter; and, according to the report of November, 
1817, of Padre Sarria, the comisario prefecto, it was 
decided ‘‘to found ‘a kind of rancho with its chapel, bap- 
tistry, and cemetery, with the title of San Rafael Arcangel, 
in order that this most glorious prince, who in his name 
expresses the “healing of God,” may care’ for bodies as 
well as souls” (Bancroft). The same reasons for the new 
foundation were given by Governor Sola in a letter to the 
viceroy, dated April 3, 1818. 

Padre Luis Gil y Taboada consented to become a super- 
numerary at Mission San Francisco, in order to take charge 
of the branch establishment; and, on December 14, Padre 
Sarria, assisted by Padres Gil, Duran, and Abella, founded 
the Asistencia de San Rafael Arcangel. The ceremonies 
were the same as for a mission, and there was no real 
difference in its management. In 1818, an adobe building, 


494 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


eighty-seven feet long and forty-two feet wide, divided by 
partitions into a chapel, the padres’ dwelling, and other 
rooms, was erected. A number of neophytes were trans- 
ferred; and in 1820, the population was five hundred and 
ninety. 


The subject of land grants in Alta California is one 
that should be approached with caution and, except by the 
specialist, treated in a very general way; but it seems safe 
to say that in the early eighteen hundreds they were still 
provisional, and that, unless Don José Dario Argiello had 
been given a license to occupy Rancho Las Pulgas, or 
FE] Pilar, there were none either in the extreme north or 
south. 

In the San José region, it is certain that one was given 
to José Maria Larios, who built a house and sold the entire 
rancho to Mission San José. A controversy ensuing, on the 
subject of this land, between the Pueblo of San José and 
the mission, Larios was reprimanded and notified that the 
only right he had possessed was the usufruct; and the whole 
transaction was declared null and void by Arrillaga. 

Beginning with the year 1800, only one of the six ranchos 
that had been granted in the vicinity of Monterey is men- 
tioned during the following ten years—Buenavista. This 
land was, it seems, desired by the friars at San Carlos, who 
were much vexed with Arrillaga because he refused to evict 
the grantees and turn the land over to the mission. _ 

In 1801, six persons agreed to form a settlement near 


San Juan Bautista; and, in 1803, one of them, Mariano 


Castro, returned from Mexico, bringing a viceregal license 
permitting the group to occupy Rancho La Brea; but the 
friars refused to remove their live stock and made it impos- 


sible for the license to be taken advantage of; and, in 1807, 
Castro asked for Rancho Salsipuedes, but the outcome is — 


unknown, veiled in the claims of Mission Santa Cruz. 


Of the privately held ranchos, San Rafael was the first : 


- a ied 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 495 


granted—by Fages, to Verdugo, on October 20, 1784. Tos 
Nietos, granted to Nieto, in November of the same year, 
was the largest of all the California grants, sixty-eight 
square leagues—more than three hundred thousand acres— 
reduced, later, to meet a claim presented by Mission San 
Gabriel. San Pedro, to Dominguez; Portezuelo, to another 
Verdugo; San José de Gracia de Simi, to Pico; and, it may 
be, El Refugio, to Ortega, were others granted, prior to 
1800, in the Los Angeles district. 

After 1800, Las Virgenes was granted to Miguel Ortega; 
FE] Conejo to Polanco and Rodriguez; and Rancho Santiago 
de Santa Ana, to Yorba. El Encino, taken from Reyes for 
-Mission San Fernando, may have been replaced by another 
near Purisima Concepcion. Both the San Vicente and the 
Camulos were sought by and refused to many. 

The friars evidently had a very poor opinion of 
rancheros in general, and those at San Buenaventura pro- 
tested vigorously against granting the Camulos to Avila 
in 1804: “Their presence was detrimental to the success 
of missionary effort; they led an idle, vagabond life, often 
left their farms and wives in charge of gentiles, and set a 
bad example, rarely coming to hear mass or missing a fan- 
dango. .. . Indians who were brought up among Chris- 
tians were always hardest to convert. The rancheros, the 
friars claimed, did not accumulate property, nor add in any 
respect to the prosperity of the country” (Bancroft). 

Comandantes of presidios were forbidden to own ranchos 
for the raising of live stock. 

During the years that followed between this time and 
1821, there is not much in the records about private 
ranchos. Some of the original grants had been abandoned 
and there were a few new ones. Mention is occasionally 
made of one rancho or another, in some connection, but it 
is all very confused and of little interest. Eldredge says: 
“Not more than thirty of these private grants, if so many, 
appear to have been made by all of the Spanish governors.” 


496 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


Boundary lines were ill defined and very vague, and the 
cause of trouble and protests, first from one side, then 
another. Protests came from the missions against private 
land grants, on general principles; and also for all sorts 
of special reasons, some of them excellent and some seem- 
ingly far-fetched. An objection was made, in 1816, to a 
grant twenty leagues from San Gabriel. 

The padres are credited with saying that El Refugio had 
enough land for a mission; yet there seems not to have 
been enough to permit them to graze the Mission San 
Fernando sheep over it. In 1817, they were ordered off 
by the Ortegas, as they had been in 1816, by Patricio Pico, 
from the Simi. 

In December, 1819, the Pueblo of Los Angeles protested 
that the land granted to Talamantes and Machado belonged 
to and was needed by the pueblo. ‘The names of the 
petitioners are all written in one handwriting, with a ‘+’ 
attached by the two regidores [Anastasio Avila and Tomas 
Uribes], who could not write, to certify the genuineness 
of all” (Bancroft, note). 

Protests came from all angles of the triangle made up 
of pueblos, missions, and private ranchos. 

However objectionable to the friars were ranchos and 
pueblos, that of Los Angeles did well in the material sense. 
By 1817, the land appertaining yielded all the produce that 
could be marketed. But be it again understood that the 
Spaniard, genuine or so-called, in Alta California, himself 
did little real work. He became in the strictest and most — 
limited sense of the word a caballero: he rode a horse. 
He rode well; and he bore arms bravely. The tenure by 
which the pobladores held their land required both—but — 
they did little else that could, by any possibility, be done 
by the Indians, who did the agricultural work and shared ~ 
the crops. They were to be had for all kinds of labor, 
and were well pleased with one real a day in payment. 
There was no “‘servant question,” Indians, male and female, 


: 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 497 


giving ready service for little, if anything, more than food 
and raiment, and those of the simplest. 

In 1814, Padre Gil y Taboada, at that time at San 
Gabriel, laid the corner stone for a new chapel at the 
pueblo, but the site was changed and nothing was done 
until 1818. Five hundred cattle were subscribed by the 
pobladores, but as their sale would not bring enough to 
build the chapel, the governor agreed to take them and 
to include the cost of building in his estimate for the fol- 
lowing year; and the comisario prefecto, Payéras, appealed 
to the missions, and succeeded in getting a contribution of 
seven barrels of brandy, worth five hundred and seventy- 
five pesos, for the fund. In 1821, although not completed, 
the walls had risen as high as the window arches. 

The result of the secularization decree of the Spanish 
cortes of 1813 did not materialize in orders to the Fran- 
ciscans in California until the royal confirmation was pub- 
lished by Viceroy Venadito, in a bando—edict—of Jan- 
uary 20, 1821, more than seven years after the action 
of the cortes. (Guardian Lopez, of the College of San 
Fernando, immediately forwarded the news to Prefect 
Payéras with instructions to comply at once, to surrender 
to the government the administration of the temporalities, 
and to be ready, with exact inventories, to turn over to the 
bishop, as soon as the demand should arrive, the nineteen 
missions that had been established in Alta California. 

The comisario prefecto notified the governor of the 
receipt of these instructions; and that the friars were ready 
to carry out their part, and were rejoiced either to go on 
to new conversions or to retire. The Bishop of Sonora 
was notified; and the friars were sent a circular, giving 
them full information. The comisario prefecto had then 
done his full duty in the matter, and nothing remained but 
to await further instructions. 

(The bishop had still no secular priests to send; and 
this the friars knew. So it is probable that they were not 


498 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


greatly disturbed over the order to move on; and after 
having signified their readiness to comply, settled down 
again in erstwhile security. ) 

Under date of December 20, the Bishop of Sonora 
replied to the prefect that the California friars might 
remain where they were; that the order had not been 
enforced anywhere in America, and it would be time enough 
to think of new conversions later. 


XL 


Commanding the American brig, Clarion, which dropped 
anchor on the afternoon of October 6, 1818, Captain Henry 
Gyzelaar came again to Santa Barbara and informed 
Comandante José de la Guerra y Noriega that two insur- 
gente ships were outfitting at the Hawaiian Islands for 
a visit to the coast. 

Word was sent to the governor by the comandante; and 
warnings, in every direction. 

Orders, upon receipt of the news, were despatched by 
Sola to the presidios and missions about everything imagi- 
nable, great and small: gunpowder, cartridges, provisions, 
sentinels, and relays of couriers. In the event of Sola’s 
death, De la Guerra was to be recognized as acting gov- 
ernor. Settlers were summoned to aid in the defense, and 
Indians, with bows and arrows, from the missions. The 
presidios were to be prepared for attack, and all was to 
be in readiness to send women and children, at the first 
alarm, to certain of the inner chain of missions. 

Ghostlike, the Villa de Branciforte appears in this con- 
nection, in a letter of October 19, from Padre Ramon 
Olbés, of Mission Santa Cruz, to Don José de la Guerra, 
in which the padre is evidently disturbed by the attitude of 
pleased expectancy at the villa over the possible arrival of 
the revolutionists: ‘‘ ‘not to fight, but to join them, for 
such is the disposition of the inhabitants’ ”’ (Bancroft). 


Everything was arranged according to orders. Every 
one was on the qui vive. But days grew into weeks, and 
still the Alta California coast was unvisited by the insur- 
_ gentes. Gradually, the belief that, as before, this was a 


[ 499 ] 


500 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


false alarm took hold; and again a feeling somewhat akin 
to security supervened. Even the governor himself, when 
the month of November was on the wane, felt that it was 
too late in the year to expect an attack; and, although vigi- 
lance was not relaxed, he issued orders to Comandante de 
la Guerra and, perhaps, to the others, permitting those 
who had been summoned to the presidios to aid in defend- 
ing the province to return to their homes. 

The tone of his letter to Don José was, to say the least, 
peevish, and not far removed from insulting: chiding him 
for listening to unfounded rumors, and thus holding him 
accountable for the “false alarm.” 


The revolutionary movement took shape in the Spanish 
South American colonies in 1810, as it had in New Spain. 
Buenos Aires declared her independence in 1816, and, there- 
after, vigorously aided the movement in the other depend- 
encies, being especially helpful to those on the opposite side 
of the continent, issuing letters of marque to vessels—many 
of them from the United States, despite a declared neutral- 
ity—recognized as privateers and, under cover of that, 
attacking when and where they pleased, patrolling the west- 
ern coast, hampering and harassing the Spanish officials. 


Most of those from the United States were outfitted 


at Baltimore and so, from whatever port they may have 
hailed—and to whatever class they were relegated: “patriot 


craft,’ “‘privateersmen,”’ or ‘pirates,’ according to the 
locality in which they found themselves—just as all Ameri- 


Y 


can trading vessels had been termed ‘Boston ships,” they 


were all known as “Baltimore ships.” 


Effects were far reaching and ramified strangely. Loyal 


‘ 
‘ 
‘ 


—taking no part in uprisings against Spain, not even sym- 


pathizing, Alta California was nevertheless hard hit. For, 
by the presence of these Buenos Aires vessels in South 
American waters, Lima ships, bringing merchandise and 
taking away tallow, were for long periods held in port, 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 501 


unable to run the blockade, and Alta California was thus 
left without supplies and was thereby forced into illicit 
trade with the ‘Boston ships’ and with the Russians at 
Ross. 

The nervously expected insurgente vessels, which had not 
as yet appeared, were of those taking out letters of marque 
at Buenos Aires, and at least one of them is thought to 
have been a “Baltimore ship.” 


Still below the horizon scanned by the lookouts posted 
on the coast, two vessels were in reality, at that very instant 
of time, heading for Monterey. ‘The larger was the 
Argentina, or La Gentila—Captain Hippolyte Bouchard, 
a Frenchman—with two hundred and sixty men on board, 
and armed with forty-four guns. On the smaller, the 
Santa Rosa, or La Libertad, under command of Peter 
Corney, an Englishman, were one hundred men; eighteen 
guns were carried. Most of the officers were American. 
As to the crews, they were made up of all sorts and con- 
ditions of men. A few were English, many were Kanakas; 
the rest, Americans, Spanish Americans, and Spaniards, 
Portuguese, Filipinos, Malays, and negroes, Both ships 
were flying the flag of Buenos Aires. 

At Monterey the available force was “forty men, twenty- 
five cavalrymen of the presidial company, four veteran 
artillerymen, and eleven of the artillery militiamen” (Ban- 
croft). The rest had been dispersed to their homes. 


On November 20, two specks rose out of space at the 
edge of the world of waters, and developed, under the 
eye of the lookout.at Point Pinos, into two vessels making 
for the port. 

Straightway, a courier bore the news to Sola—long 
expected but, at the moment of coming, startling, unex- 
pected! Now, like the cry of ‘‘Wolf! wolf!” in the fable, 


the agitation over the possible arrival of the insurgentes, 


502 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


to which all had become so accustomed that not much appre- 
hension was felt, suddenly took on an actuality—and the 
thing itself was there! 

Immediately, there was the bustle of preparation; orders 
long delayed were now being executed. ‘The news was 
spread that the time had come for families to retire to the 
already designated points in the interior; and the flight 
began—if the journey in the cumbersome conveyances lum- 
bering away from the coast may be so called. Everything 
available was pressed into service: carts with two hides 
for a floor, some of them with two others for a roof— 
inadequate protection from the rains that fell, offering 
little except misery to the shivering old men and invalids 
and the terror-stricken women and children bundled into 
them. 

Officers took up their positions at their batteries; and a 
new one was improvised on the beach. 


The two vessels loomed larger; but, in the early dark- 
ness of the November day, it was nearly night when they 
drew near the port, and long past eleven o’clock when the 
Santa Rosa, the smaller of the two, cast anchor in the 
harbor out of range of the guns at the fort—the larger 
remaining outside. 

The usual formal questions were shouted, and the 
answers came back, not in Spanish but in English, which 
nobody understood! Next, orders to send a boat ashore 
with the ship’s papers were essayed. ‘The answer returned 
was taken to mean that it would be done the next morning. 

According to the journal of Peter Corney, the one source 
of information from that side: “Being well acquainted 
with the bay I ran in and came too at midnight, under the 
fort; the Spaniard hailed me frequently to send a boat 
on shore, which I declined. .. . I got a spring on the 
cable, and at daylight opened a fire on the fort, which was 
briskly returned from two batteries.” 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 503 


The vessels became, to the Montereyfios, the “fragata 
negra [black frigate],” the larger, lying off shore, and the 
“fragata chica [little frigate ],’’ close in. No boat was sent 
ashore the next morning, as had been expected, but—as 
Corney tells it, so do the Spaniards—at dawn, the fragata 
chica opened fire. 

Surprise, however, did not prevent the fire from being 
speedily returned. This cross fire was kept up for two 
hours; and, notwithstanding the unserviceable condition of 
some of the guns on shore, much damage resulted to the 
fragata chica and there were both killed and wounded 
on board. But another and a greater surprise came to 
those on land, when the flag of the chica was lowered 
in token of surrender! (Corney makes no mention of 
surrender. ) 

Six boatloads of men were seen to leave the vessel. The 
easy victory and this maneuver convinced Sola that some 
ruse was in progress, and Corporal José de Jesus Vallejo, 
in charge of the improvised shore battery, was ordered to 
continue firing; but behind the back of the governor, a 
lively byplay was being enacted. A counter order was 
immediately sent by Manuel Gomez, in command of the 
principal shore defenses, to Vallejo to cease firing. ‘This, 
Vallejo, suspecting his loyalty, was inclined to disregard. 
Gomez threatened that, unless the order were obeyed, the 
guns of the fort would be turned on the battery, and this 
order, it seems, was actually given, but, his gunners refus- 
ing absolutely to execute it, he had no way to enforce it. 
Meantime, either because of an order from Sola or for one 
of several reasons given in the conflicting accounts, Vallejo 
had ceased firing. 

Sola then ordered the commander of the surrendered 
vessel ashore but was informed that the commander was 
not on board. He had, it appears, betaken himself to the 
larger vessel. Sola replied that, unléss a responsible person 
be immediately sent ashore, firing would recommence. 


504 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


The responsible person produced was the second officer, 
one Joseph Chapman, an American. 

Now the Argentina—the fragata negra—was seen 
approaching under full sail, and the ‘responsible per- 
son’’ was cast into jail while more pressing matters were 
attended to! 


Gleaned from several sources worthy of credence, but by 
no means impeccable—stories handed down seldom are— 
there is one logical and probable explanation of the other- 
wise inexplicable episode of the fragata chica, strengthened 
by being stated as fact by several persons: that Bouchard, 
the commander of the expedition, either had been to Mon- 
terey himself, had a trusted emissary, or had been furnished 
information by some one at Monterey (Manuel Gomez is 
the one suspected, he having a nephew, Lieutenant Luciano 
Gomez, on one of the Bouchard ships) ; that the diagram 
furnished Bouchard had been drawn prior to the placing 
of the new battery by Sola; and that, therefore, the fragata 
chica had, unknowingly, been brought to anchor within 
range of these guns and could easily have been sunk by 
Vallejo, had he not been ordered to cease firing. 


The Argentina anchored just out of range of all the guns. 
A boat was then lowered and sent ashore under a flag of 
truce, with a formal demand from Bouchard to the goy- 
ernor, to surrender the province. 

To this, Sola made answer that the governor “ ‘looked 
with due scorn upon all that the said communication con- 
tained; . . . and that while there was a man alive in the 
province he could not succeed in his plan of taking posses- 
sion, since all its inhabitants were faithful servants of the 
king and would shed the last drop of blood in his service’ ” 
(Bancroft). That day and that night, the men remained 
under arms in a drizzling rain. All were in suspense and 
waiting to meet the next offensive on the part of the enemy. 


od : 
ae ee rs 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 505 


In the morning, nine boatloads of men, with four small 
cannon, put off from the negra and headed for Point 
Potreros. ‘The negra, herself, drew closer in shore, and 
firing between vessel and fort began. ‘The intention could 
not be mistaken: those at the presidio were to be hemmed 
in between two fires! 

Alférez Estrada, with a small force, was sent to prevent 
a landing being made. But a large force was landed, which 
paid little attention to Estrada and his little company— 
charging and retreating—relentlessly driven backward by 
the sheer force of numbers, steadily but slowly advancing, 
on the lookout for an ambuscade. 

(In one account, the foe is described as moving forward 
with a band playing and carrying a red flag! ‘This is given 
here only because it is colorful and picturesque—and yet, 
it may be absolutely true.) 

Although some further resistance was made by the Span- 
iards, the situation at the presidio was so utterly hopeless 
that guns were spiked, powder that could not be taken was 
burned, and Governor Sola retreated, with all his men, one 
two-pounder, two boxes of powder, six thousand musket 
cartridges, and the provincial archives, to the Rancho del 
Rey on the Salinas River, and there established head- 
quarters. And the ‘‘Royal Presidio of Monterey” was left 
to its fate. 

Reénforcements came the next day to the headquarters 
on the Salinas; but it was not deemed expedient to attempt 
an offensive—when the hopelessness of even a defensive 
was a foregone conclusion! (Accounts again conflict and 
some “‘battles’’ are reported.) All that could be done was 
to spy upon the foe and see what was going forward. 

Bouchard and his men remained at the capital for some 
days. The dead were buried, the wounded cared for; 
vessels were repaired and the town sacked. Corney says: 
“Tt was well stocked with provisions and goods of every 
description, which we commenced sending on board the 


506 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


Argentina. The Sandwich Islanders, who were quite naked 
when they landed, were soon dressed in the Spanish fashion, 
and all the sailors were employed in searching the houses for 
money, and breaking and ruining everything.’ Mission San 
Carlos at Carmelo, if visited at all, was not despoiled. 

On the 26th or the 27th, or on December 1 according 
to Corney, the Argentina and the Santa Rosa moved on 
down the coast, taking away with them as their only prisoner 
one Molina, a drunken settler, who had, no doubt, wan- 
dered into the middle of things. 


A sufficient force having rallied round the standard set 
up on the Salinas, reénforcements having arrived from both 
San Francisco and Santa Barbara, some two hundred Span- 
iards and many Indians advanced on Monterey, only to 
find the little town sacked and in flames and the enemy gone. 
Two deserters were discovered and they were taken 
prisoners. 

Fl Refugio was next visited by Bouchard and his men, 
drawn thither, possibly, by tales of the wealth and pos- 
sessions of the Ortegas, told by the traders with whom 
they had had illicit dealings. Finding all the buildings 
deserted and the valuables removed, they burned everything 
and proceeded on their way. But, while they were at 
Refugio, Sergeant Carlos Antonio Carrillo, with thirty men, 
had arrived on the scene, and, from ambush, had lassoed 
three of Bouchard’s men. This was the burden of their 
song at Santa Barbara, where the fragatas cast anchor on 
December 6, and a letter was sent ashore by Bouchard 
under a flag of truce, asking for an exchange of prisoners 
and promising to cease hostilities and leave the coast if his 
request were complied with. 

The comandante replied that the prisoners were still 
alive but that their fate would depend upon Bouchard’s 
own behavior; that it would take at least six days to receive 
an answer from Governor Sola, to whom his proposition 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 507 


had been despatched. Realizing how few men he had, 
Don José is credited with having employed a ruse as old 
as time, marching his meager forces round and round a 
small hill, so as to impress the “pirates” with their 

limitlessness ! , 

Copies of De la Guerra’s letters are extant. One that 
went to Bouchard on the same day was evidently an answer 
to something in one from him. Don José writes: “‘ ‘If 
your men are very anxious to fight, I can assure you that 
mine are desperate to meet them’”’ (Bancroft). 

The comandante, knowing nothing of how many pris- 
oners Bouchard had taken and having no means of ascer- 
taining, agreed to an exchange of prisoners on the follow- 
ing day. On the next day, when about to deliver up the 
three lassoed at Refugio, De la Guerra was surprised and 
somewhat shocked to discover that Bouchard proposed to 
return only one. New negotiations had to be entered upon, 
and the question was raised by Don José as to Bouchard’s 
use of the plural: ‘‘prisoners.’’ ‘This finally forced a con- 
fession from Bouchard that he had, in fact, but one; and 
he offered to allow a search of his ships to be made. Think- 
ing it better to give up three of the insurgentes than to 
have one of his own men taken away by them, De la Guerra 
agreed to the exchange. And, to make a long story shorter, 
when the prisoners were brought forth, the one used by 
Bouchard to secure his own captured men was the poor, 
worthless Molina! 

There was great indignation, and Molina, the unfor- 
tunate creature, had to pay heavily for his reappearance. 
He was given one hundred lashes on his bare back (by 
order of the governor), and six years in the chain gang! 
But Molina was not the only one upon whom the wrath 
of Sola was visited, for Don José de la Guerra was rep- 
rimanded very severely for not doing “this, that, and the 
other,”’ which Sola, with his superior forces and everything 
at his command, had been very far from able to do himself! 


508 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


The two fragatas passed San Buenaventura without stop- 
ping but dropped anchor off San Juan Capistrano, where 
Alférez Santiago Argiiello, with thirty men, was awaiting 
them, having taken up a position overlooking the mission, 
whose occupants had been sent to El Trabuco. Bouchard 
demanded ‘‘an immediate supply of provisions,’ with the 
promise that, if they were forthcoming, he ‘would spare 
their town.”” ‘The message that came back, according to 
Corney, was that they might land if they pleased and 
would be given “an immediate supply of powder and 
shot. The Commodore [Bouchard] was very much in- 
censed at this answer” and, the following morning, before 
daylight, ordered Corney ashore to “bring him a sample 
of the powder and shot.” 

One hundred and forty men, well armed, and equipped, 
besides, with two fieldpieces, landed. Meeting with but 
little resistance and finding ‘‘the town well stocked with 
everything but money,” they pillaged, set fire to buildings, 
and ‘“‘destroyed much wine and spirits.” Many men became 
intoxicated and, in consequence, the return to the ship was 
not made in good order. ‘The next morning, Bouchard, 
who was a strict disciplinarian, “‘punished about twenty men 
for getting drunk.” 

Argtello seems to have maintained a strictly “‘defensive 
offensive” until the arrival of reénforcements from Los 
Angeles and Santa Barbara, and of Don José de la Guerra, 
who challenged the insurgentes, who had returned to their 
ships, to come back and fight. The invitation was declined. 

At San Diego, Comandante Ruiz was especially well 
prepared to receive the pirate crew, even with red-hot balls, 
thought of and desired at Monterey but with no one at 
hand who understood their manipulation. The two vessels 
sailed southward, however, without paying him a visit. 

They arrived off Valparaiso on July 9, 1819, and there 
Peter Corney left the expedition, having joined it at the 
Hawaiian Islands prior to the Alta California episode; and 


a 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 509 


Bouchard and his ships disappear again into the obscurity 
enshrouding them before Peter Corney and his journal 
illumined the narrative. 

As things unraveled themselves, deductions from the 
testimony of the prisoners taken at the time of the visit of 
the insurgentes, from Corney’s journal and from such other 
information as is at hand, primarily, the motive behind 
Bouchard’s attack was patriotic: a proselyting expedition 
for the “‘patriot cause,” to gain Alta California for the 
revolutionists. -Failing this, finding the governor and the 
province loyal, he struck a blow at Spain through her 
colony. | 

In Alta California, the year 1818 was afterward el aiio 
de los insurgentes, for reasons which need no explanation. 


XLI 


News received by the viceroy in December, 1818, of 
the attack by Bouchard, produced results in the form of 
orders before the arrival of Governor Sola’s report. 

It was to be expected that but scant attention would be 
bestowed upon an outlying dependency, swathed in peace 
even though with but little else, by the viceroyalty, torn 
by revolution and engrossed by internal affairs. Conditions 
in the province, other than destitution, were not, however, 
due entirely to that, for—comparable to the stoicism with 
which the misery of others is endured—the defenselessness 
of Alta California had usually been viewed with indifference 
by the officials at the capital. Now the thought that a limb 
had been severed from the body politic—that a small part 
of the province had been seized—roused Viceroy Juan Ruiz 
de Apodaca to an unprecedented appreciation of the fact 
that, at once, assistance must be forthcoming. Something 
must be done if the entire loyal province was not to be 
appropriated, willy-nilly, by any foe who might chance to 
covet it. 

Governor Sola was notified that two ships with troops 
and munitions for the relief of Alta California were to be 
despatched. And, after the receipt of his report, no 
change was made in orders except that everything was to 
be expedited. 

Two companies were to be sent, each numbering one 
hundred men: San Blas infantry under Captain José 
Antonio Navarrete, Lieutenant Antonio del Valle, and 
Alférez Francisco de Haro; and Mazatlan cavalry under 
Captain Pablo de Portilla, Lieutenants Juan Maria Ibarra 
and Narciso Fabregat, and Alférez Ignacio Delgado. 


[ 510 ] 


EE ae 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 511 


The San Blas contingent was the first to be despatched, 
Captain Navarrete, with a part of his men, sailing on the 
Reina de los Angeles—Captain José Bandini—a vessel 
chartered for the purpose at a cost of ten thousand pesos 
and four thousand pesos additional a month after April 18, 
for time lost at San Blas or in California. Lieutenant del 
Valle, Alférez de Haro, and the rest of the men sailed 
on the San Carlos, commanded by Lieutenant Gonzalo 
Gomez de Ulloa. Both vessels got under way on June 8, 
from San Blas. 

The Escaudron de Mazatlan sailed from that port on 
July 14, on the Cossack. ‘The vessel had been chartered 
for San Diego direct but was swept by winds up the gulf, 
and many of the men being seriously ill, some at the point 
of death, all were disembarked at San Luis Gonzaga Bay; 
and by easy marches, San Diego was reached on Septem- 
ber 16. They were fairly well armed and brought ten 
thousand pesos with which to defray expenses. 

The new arrivals were distributed so that each presidio 
would be strengthened by about fifty men. 


The two companies that had arrived were of different 
caste and caliber: the Mazatlan cavalry, the “Matzatecos,”’ 
were of good class and discipline, while the Veteranos de 
San Blas—the San Blas Veterans—were what were known 
in Alta California as ‘“‘cholos,’ an opprobrious term in the 
province, but, literally, the offspring of a Spanish father 
and an Indian mother. They were vagabonds, criminals 
picked up by press gangs, vicious and quarrelsome, drunk- 
ards, gamblers, thieves, and even murderers; and, from 
the moment of arrival, trouble began. They were not only 
a bad lot but undisciplined, and many of them had never 
had a musket in their hands. ‘They gave further offense 
by being small in stature and wearing their hair short. 

Based upon letters from the viceroy, Governor Sola had 
expected a detachment of artillery, carbines, swords, and 


512 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


cannon, as well as money with which to put forts and bat- 
teries into serviceable condition. None of these had come. 
He was disappointed because of this, but he was indignant 
over the class of men sent in the San Blas company to 
aid in protecting the province, and so expressed himself 
to Viceroy Apodaca—with some reference to the useless- 
ness of sending ‘“‘jailbirds as soldiers.’”’ He went so far, 
it seems (these communications are not extant), as to accuse 
the viceroy of having broken his promises, and his old 
commander, General José de la Cruz, of having disobeyed 
the viceroy’s orders! He also said quite what he thought 
about some saber blades, fitted on the voyage north with 
badly made wooden handles, which was: that they were 
‘“‘not fit for sickles’”’' (Bancroft). 

The viceroy, who had been pluming himself because of 
his unusual exertions toward the relief of California, was 
now indignant, himself, over Sola’s criticisms. He con- 
sidered Sola ungrateful, impudent, besides, and in need of 
a reprimand, and replied “‘in substance: ‘You have no con- 
sideration of the difficulties encountered, or of the sacrifices 
made in sending to your province such an army as it never 
saw before, and you dare to say you are in a worse condi- 
tion than ever. The swords are not ‘‘fit for sickles;’’ in 
fact were not intended to be, but for weapons; and if the 
handles are not suitable then put on better ones, and supply 
the lack of scabbards from the hides so abundant in your 
country. No carbines were sent because none could be 
found; let the troops use muskets to which they are better 
accustomed. The artillery is on the way . . . and will 
arrive in due time. ‘[wo vessels have been laden with sup- 
plies, and will take away the products of the country, thus 
aiding the pueblo you say you have to feed. And those 
settlers, let them go to work, as God and the king require; 
let them develop the rich resources of their province and 
talk less, and thus will they live comfortably, and also be 
an aid rather than a burden to the government in such 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 513 


trying times as these.’ I shall continue to do all in my 
power for your province, and I shall despatch the San 
Carlos next March with eight missionaries, besides money 
and goods. Meanwhile if the two hundred men I have 
sent are of no use to you, send them back’”’ (Bancroft). 

The correspondence was peppery. Every one’s nerves 
were on edge, and Sola’s worn to the raw; but if Sola’s 
were out of order, so it would seem were the viceroy’s or 
else he was a somewhat irascible caballero. 


In 1819, the Indian situation’ was the cause of grave 
concern. The Tularenos had become not only expert horse- 
men but adepts as horse thieves and held regular fairs for 
their sale. Runaway neophytes took’ refuge with them 
among the tules and lagoons and, as they learned the ways 
of the white man, they became more and more a menace. 
But this was overshadowed by rumors that a combined 
attack by all of the Indians, as far as the Rio Colorado, 
was imminent. ‘This situation had been precipitated by an 
unfortunate occurrence at Mission San Buenaventura in 
May of that year, brought about by the injudicious behavior 
of some of the mission guards toward visiting Amajava 
(Mojave) Indians, who had come to trade with the neo- 
phytes and were conducting themselves very quietly. 

It is impossible to say what really happened, but, from 
even the conflicting statements, it. seems clear that they 
were not well treated, the sentinel striking one of them; 
whereupon the Indians killed the corporal and another 
Spaniard. In the fight which ensued, two of the Ama- 
* javas and one neophyte were killed. 

Long before the founding of the Asistencia de San Rafael, 
it had become apparent that something in the way of con- 
certed action against the Indians must be undertaken. Now 
the time was more than ripe. A plan which had been 
discussed was to be put into execution and a beginning 


514 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


was to be made in an attempt to force all the Indians in 
the vicinity of the coast farther inland. 

The Indians needed and were to receive a thorough dis- 
ciplining, which would simplify matters when the time for 
going among them in the regular way, with presidios and 
missions, should arrive. 

In the autumn, three expeditions were sent out. The 
first, twenty-five men under Sergeant Sanchez, marched in 
October, from San Francisco by way of San José into the 
San Joaquin Valley. An expedition by water, up the river, 
was to have cooperated with this, but did not. In an engage- 
ment with the Muquelemes, in which one neophyte was 
killed and five soldiers wounded, sixteen Indans were cap- 
tured and twenty-seven killed. Forty-nine horses were 
recovered. [his campaign was considered a brilliant suc- 
cess and Sanchez was recommended for promotion. 

The second expedition, marching from Monterey, was 
commanded by Lieutenant José Maria Estudillo. He was 
accompanied by Sergeant José Dolores Pico, who knew 
the country, and about forty men. This campaign was 
a failure. 

The third, under command of Lieutenant Gabriel Mor- 
aga, was the most ambitious. This expedition marched on 
November 22 from Mission San Gabriel, under the double 
patronage of the Arcangel Gabriel and Nuestra Senora del 
Pilar. Some artillery was taken. With Moraga were 
thirty-five cavalrymen; and he was accompanied by Lieu- 
tenant Narciso Fabregat with fifteen of the newly arrived 
Mazatlan infantry. 

Moraga was to proceed to the rancheria of the Ama- 


javas; to march to the Colorado; and if, upon investigation, 


there was any truth in the constantly arriving reports of a 
contemplated attack by the Indians, he was to give them 
a lesson they would never forget. 

The interior—a difficult country to traverse—was pene- 
trated for seventy or eighty leagues, when, for lack of water 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 515 


and feed, horses and mules began to give out. A return 
became necessary; and San Gabriel was reached on Decem- 
ber 14. 

The expedition was not a success; and Moraga reported 
in favor of another at a different time of the year. 


1819 was the lean year in the province. The transports 
did not come; but no hopes had been built on their coming. 
The Lima ships brought no goods up the coast, to trade 
for tallow. Neither did the Russians come, seeking to 
exchange merchandise for foodstuffs. In fact, no trading 
vessels appeared in the year 1819. Very little except muni- 
tions had arrived in the three troopships. One of the 
captains had disposed of some three thousand pesos worth 
of goods, which was less than a drop in the bucket in the 
way of relieving the need. The padres had redoubled their 
efforts after the Bouchard invasion, furnishing for Mon- 
terey materials of many kinds, as well as neophytes to 
assist in the rebuilding and even three thousand five hundred 
pesos in actual money. But, now, still more was expected 
of them; their power to help must be still farther stretched. 
Another attack was looked for, and such preparations as 
were possible must be made. 

The missions were called upon to manufacture cartridge 
boxes and machetes, and to furnish many other things. 
Orders were issued that forty skilled archers must be on 
call, and that a station was to be maintained between each 
two missions, at which one hundred and fifty horses were 
to be kept; but this last order evolved into one permitting 
the horses to be in readiness at the missions. 


It was not even imagined that transports with supplies 
would be sent. 

In the straits to which the Alta Californians were reduced 
in 1819, a plan was worked out by the governor and the 
comandantes, by which it was hoped real lasting benefit 


516 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


might result—the province be put upon a practical and sub- 
stantial footing—and immediate relief secured. 

A special messenger was to be sent direct to the capital 
and for this delicate, diplomatic mission, Captain Don José 
de la Guerra y Noriega, respected by all classes, was chosen 
to represent them and to lay their needs and hopes for 
assistance before the viceroy. 

De la Guerra sailed on the Reina de los Angeles, armed 
with instructions and powers of attorney. Arriving at 
San Blas, he wrote to the viceroy on November 26, evi- 
dently stating the nature of his mission. Under date of 
January 12, 1820, the viceroy replied that he had informed 
Governor Sola of his efforts—so far as the condition of 
the treasury would permit—in behalf of California; that 
he was arranging to send thirty thousand pesos to the 
habilitado general at Guadalajara; “‘and that if he, Guerra, 
had no other business in Mexico he might return to his post 
on the San Carlos, since his longer stay was unnecessary’ 
(Bancroft). 

De la Guerra did not return. He went to the capital 
and accomplished as much as was humanly possible; 
but not as much as he had been instructed to attempt to bring 
about. His return passport is dated April 15, but he is 
supposed to have returned on the San Carlos in June, 
with goods invoiced at more than forty-one thousand 
pesos. 

That year, 1820, things looked up a bit. Trade was 
brisk. ‘There was more demand for tallow than could be 
supplied. Khliebnikov brought south a cargo, on the 
Boldakov, and provisions were sold to Russian vessels and 
to an English whaler. 

Permanent trade negotiations were, as ever, uppermost 
in the Russian mind. There being a new general manager, 
Lieutenant Khlebnikov was sent down to trge upon Sola 
the fulfillment of his promises to Hagemeister. Sola said 
that he had made no promises to Hagemeister. But no 


4 
; 
3 
§ 
| 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 517 


objection was made to the cargo brought by the Boldakov 
being exchanged for grain. 

The point had been reached where trade with the Rus- 
sians was a foregone conclusion; but this was not without 
much mental anguish to Governor Sola, whose aristocratic 
conscience fairly writhed whenever conditions, had to be 
alleviated in what, to him, was a questionable way. Yet 
circumstances were so in league against him that he always 


yielded. 


Meanwhile, an uprising of the military in the mother 
country, in March, 1820, had forced a revival of the liberal 
constitution of 1812, which had been repudiated by Fer- 
nando VII after his restoration. ‘This constitution was 
proclaimed in May of the same year by Viceroy Apodaca. 
The announcement was received in the torn and patched 
viceroyalty with varying emotions, mental readjustments, 
shiftings of viewpoints, and rapid and radical changes in 
party aims. 

Propitious—amid this instability—-was the time, and 
Agustin de Iturbide, a mestizo, classed with the creoles, a 
retired colonel in the Spanish army—somewhat under a 
cloud because of irregularities in conduct, needing money 
and ambitious, withal—who had been very efficient against 
the revolutionary forces, was induced to lead a new party 
and, himself, to take the field in a revolution reactionary in 
character. 

Military forces were needed and, hoodwinking the vice- 
roy—by way of a beginning—lIturbide (according to 
Priestley, a ‘‘constructive traitor’) was put in command of 
some twenty-five hundred troops and sent to oppose Vicente 
Guerrero—the last of the revolutionary leaders of im- 
portance; but, after a few preliminary skirmishes, conflicts 
became conferences and, at Iguala, the two combined forces. 

On February 24, 1821, Iturbide published his manifesto, 


518 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


the Plan de Iguala, in which it was proposed to establish 
an independent limited monarchy in New Spain, under a 
Bourbon prince, upholding the Catholic religion and the 
privileges of the clergy, and giving equal rights to all. 

The Plan was brought to the attention of Viceroy Apo- 
daca, and the presidency of the proposed junta was offered 
to him; but he refused to countenance the movement and 
declared Iturbide an outlaw. Nevertheless, while temporiz- 
ing with the leaders, the movement had gained great head- 
way and, in July, Don Juan Ruiz de Apodaca—called “The 
Unfortunate’’—was forced to resign. 


Receiving the appointment of Captain General and Act- 
ing Viceroy of New Spain, Don Juan O’ Donoju, a lieutenant 
general in the army of Spain, arrived at Vera Cruz on 
July 30 of the same year, 1821. 

The revolution had attained such formidable proportions 
that all he could do was to parley with the leaders. Unable 
to proceed to the capital, he, perforce, began his rule as 
viceroy at Vera Cruz, where he remained until he was given 
permission by Iturbide, with whom he was in communica- 
tion, to advance as far as the less pestilential town of 
Cordoba. There, on August 24, he signed a treaty by 
which he agreed to surrender Mexico. 

(It was generally believed that O’Donoju had been 
selected by certain members of the Spanish cortes, sent and 
expected to do just this. ) 

The Treaty of Cordoba incorporated the Plan of Iguala, 
but provided that ‘“‘in case of default of Spanish aspirants 
to the Mexican throne, the crown should be given to ‘such 
person as the Imperial Cortes may designate.’ The way 
was thus left open for choice of someone outside the royal 
Spanish house” (Priestley). 

In September, a junta was called and a declaration 
of independence issued. There were various under- 
standings of the situation. All were not of one mind, by 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 519 


any means, but to the people, Iturbide was “Fl Liber- 
tador.”’ A regency of five persons, of which he was the 
president, was formed, to hold office until Fernando him- 
self, one of his brothers, or another Bourbon prince should 
be available for the imperial throne awaiting him. 

O’Donoju was one of the five regents. He died very 
shortly after this time, on October 8. He was the sixty- 
second and last viceroy of New Spain. 


Nothing of this seems to have been known in the Cali- 
fornias, for on October 8—the day of O’Donojt’s death— 
Governor Sola took the oath to observe the constitution 
of 1812 (redivivus), in the presidial chapel at Santa Bar- 
bara, before Padre Suner, Captain José de la Guerra, and 
the assembled people. 

Padre Presidente Payéras took the oath on the 22d. 
Friars and officials were notified to comply with the bando; 
and answered ‘‘Sz, juro,’ as a matter of course—because it 
was the king’s order. 


On January 10, 1822, Governor Don Pablo Vicente de 
Sola, of Alta California, wrote Governor Don José Dario 
Argtello, of Baja California, out of the fullness of his 
loyalist heart, that he had received from Mexico “ ‘such 
documents as are printed in a country of dreamers, since 
independence is a dream. Day by day their presses will 
turn out absurdities by the thousand; but you and I, aware 
that the immortal, incomparable Spanish nation has many 
and great resources with which to make herself respected, 
must look with contempt on such absurd views’”’ (Ban- 
croft). Among these ‘documents’? must have been the 
original manifesto: the Plan of Iguala, of February of the 
preceding year. 

Notwithstanding Sola’s dictum, despatches were then on 
their way, announcing the success of those “ ‘dreamers’ ”’: 


the junta of September of the same year, and the organiz- 


520 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


ing of the regency. Another sheaf of despatches arrived 
in March of that year, announcing the future holding of 
the Mexican cortes—congress. 

On March 16, Governor Sola communicated the news to 
the comandantes, calling a junta at Monterey, which con- 
vened on April 9. Ten persons were present: the governor; 
the comisario prefecto, Payéras; Padre Sarria, representing 
the padre presidente, Senan; Comandantes José de la 
Guerra and Luis Argiiello, of San Barbara and San Fran- 
cisco, respectively; Lieutenant José Maria Estudillo, rep- 
resenting Comandante Francisco Maria Ruiz, of San 
Diego, and acting as secretary of the junta; Captains Por- 
tilla and Navarrete, of the Mazatlan and San Blas com- 
panies, stationed in Alta California; Lieutenant Gomez, of 
the artillery; and Lieutenant Estrada, of Monterey. 

There is no record of any discussion at this junta of 
these—most of them, at least—rabid loyalists. “To them, 
the regency was, after all, but temporary; the imperial 
throne would soon be occupied by one of their own 
princes ! 

A resolution was passed “‘to acquiesce in the regency, to 
obey the new government, to recognize the dependence of 
California on the Mexican empire only, and to take the 
prescribed oath” (Bancroft). And, on April 11, the oath 
was taken by the members of the junta at the house of the 
governor and, later, by the troops drawn up in the plaza. 
Religious services followed. 

It was all official and very solemn. Alta California as a 
dependency of Spain had ceased to be. 


To celebrate the new independence—of Mexico—the day 
ended with music, illuminations, vivas, and the firing, of 
cannon. 


ACKNOWLEDGMENT 


Doubly grateful to those whose work has been the basis 
and the inspiration for my own—historians, who, in a 
spirit of whole-hearted coéperation, have given me permis- 
sion to quote and to use material—I am, also, deeply 
grateful to historical associations, owners of copyrights, 
and publishers, who have just as graciously accorded me 
the same privilege. I welcome the opportunity to acknowl- 
edge my indebtedness. 

It is a pleasure to thank, in this way, Dr. Herbert 
Eugene Bolton, Director of the Bancroft Library, not only 
for permission to quote from his own valuable contributions 
to history but, also, as éditor of both, from the publica- 
tions from the Academy of Pacific Coast History and 
the University of California, History series—which 
extracts have been, in each case, credited to the author, 
individual editor, or translator; Dr. Charles Edward 
Chapman, whose Catalogue of Materials in the Archivo 
General de Indias has furnished me several safe bridges 
over difficulties, for a most generous, unhampered permis- 
sion, of which I have made free use in writing of events 
outside the province but leading in direct sequence into 
Alta California; Dr. Herbert Ingram Priestley, whose 
publications, in part, although along different historical 
lines, lead up to and form a strong background for a history 
of California, from whom, therefore, permission to use 
such portions as would serve, the purposes of my work 
was received with great satisfaction—and taken very liter- 
ally; Fray Zephyrin Engelhardt, O.F.M., of Mission 


Santa Barbara—the foundation stone in church history, 
[521] 


522 SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


as is Bancroft in all else, upon which Spanish Alta Cali- 
fornia is built—who gave me, with the hope that some 
good purpose, in the interest of truth, might be served, 
the privilege, of which I have appreciatively availed myself, 
of using anything found in his books. 

Generously Mr. Irving Berdine Richman gave of his 
work, his valuable notes, in some instances, blazing a trail 
for me toward further research; and a gallantly given per- 
mission coming from Dr. Charles F. Lummis—granting, 
without let or hindrance, the use of his fine translations 
from the original Spanish, which have so well stood every 
test of Time—brought encouragement. Appreciation and 
thanks are due these two, as well as Mrs. Gertrude Franklin 
Atherton for one graphic excerpt; Mrs. Zelia Nuttall, 
discoverer and translator of the Da Silva log, who kindly 
allowed me to round out my story of Drake from hers; 
Miss Ruth Putnam for several short sentences very much 
to the point in reference to the name “California”; Mr. 
Lathrop C. Harper, of New York, for a very liberal use 
of Elliott Coues’ Spanish Pioneer; the Misses Eldredge for 
their charming courtesy granting, to the limits of their 
rights, the use of the work of their distinguished father; 
Mr. Franklin T. Hittell—for himself and his brother, 
Carlos J.—from whom word came to make such excerpts 
as I wished to use from The History of California, written 
by that eminent scholar, Theodore Henry Hittell, their 
father; Harper & Brothers; The Macmillan Company, 
which placed at my disposal certain of their publications 
in history bearing upon my work; Charles Scribner’s Sons 
for a paragraph, asked for, from Janvier’s Mexican Guide 
and, also, for a kindly given authorization to draw upon 
Spanish Exploration in the Southwest, one of a series of 
Early Voyages, published under the auspices of the Amert- 
can Historical Association, of which Dr. J. Franklin 
Jameson, Director of the Carnegie Institution of Washing- 
ton, D. C., is the general editor, whose permission was cour- 


Se te a ee Se ee 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 523 


teously given me; The Century History Company (now 
The States History Company) for permission to quote 
from The History of California, edited by Zoeth Skinner 
Eldredge; The Pacific Southwest Bank, Pasadena, as execu- 
tor, for one colorful paragraph from the work of Charles 
Frederick Holder; for assistance, in the spelling of Russian 
names, in the Catalogue Division, Library of Congress; and 
to the entire Reference Room staff of the Los Angeles 
Public Library for unflagging patience over a long period 
of time. 

Some of the foregoing names, as well as those of a few, 
from whose writings I have gleaned, cited, and credited but 
neither with whom nor their representatives have I been 
able to communicate, together with the names of those long 
since dead—whose words have lived—Palou, Crespi, Serra, 
Costanso, Font, Garcés, La Pérouse, Vancouver, Rezanov, 
Langsdorff, and many others, will be found in the Index 
which follows. 


ALBERTA JOHNSTON DENIS. 
Los Angeles, California. 


‘ 
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INDEX 


Abella, Fray Ramén, 493. 

Activa, 374-376, 394, 429. 

Aguiar, Francisco, 277. 

Aguilar, Martin de, 27, 34. 

Aguirre, Juan Bautista de, 223, 291, 
331. 

Alarcon, Hernando de, 4. 

Alava, José Manuel de, 390-394. 

Albatross, 465, 466, 476, 478-480. 

Alberni, Pedro de, 398, 401, 402, 
421-423. 

Aldama, Ignacio, 456, 457. 

Alexander I, of Russia, 435. 

Alexander, 423, 425, 427, 428. 

Allende, Ignacio, 451-457. 

Altimirano, Pedro, 41, 42. 

Alva, Duke of, 361. 

Alvarado, Pedro de, 4, 5. 

Amadis de Gaula, x. 

Amador, Pedro, 378, 406-408, 459. 

Amarillas, Agustin de Ahumada y 
Villalon, Marqués de las, 168. 

Amoros, Fray Juan, 449. 

Amurrio, Fray Gregério, 226. 

Andrés, Fray Juan, 122. 

Anza expedition, First, 
199, 207. 

Anza expedition, Second, 223, 230, 
23T,- 252, 262,263, 276. 

Anza (San Francisco) 
25/7 26%. 

Anza (Jr.), Juan Bautista de, 152- 
156, 167-173, 176-178, 185-191, 
193, 195-199, 201, 202, 207, 209- 
211, 218, 219, 223, 230-232, 236, 
239-241, 243-249, 253, 254, 257- 
264, 270, 274, 276, 305, 307, 329, 
337-340, 360, 459. 

Anza (Sr.), Juan Bautista de, 51, 52, 
166-168, 199. 

Apodaca, Juan Ruiz de, Conde del 
Venadito, 497, 510, 512, 517, 518. 


185, 195, 


expedition, 


Aquino, Fray Tomas de, 32. 

Aranzazu, 374, 376, 396. 

Arce, Joaquin, 425, 427. 

Archuleta, Miguel, 491. 

Areche, José de, 153, 163, 172. 

Argentina, 501, 504, 506. 

Argonaut, 358. 

Argiello, Gervasio, 470, 484. 

Argiiello, Ignacio Moraga de, 
442. 

Argiello, José Dario, 314, 350, 359, 
367, 370, 372, 387, 390, 414, 429, 
439, 442, 447, 465, 470, 472, 473, 
478, 494, 519. 

Argtiello, Luis Antonio, 437, 438, 447, 
448, 467, 469, 472, 478, 482, 484, 
489, 520. 

Argiiello, Maria de 
Marcela, 441-445. 

Argiiello, Santiago, 478, 508. 

Arisivi, 167. 

Armona, Francisco, 57. 

Armona, Matias de, 140, 141, 143. 

Arriaga, Julian de, 60, 153, 155, 156, 
160, 162, 169, 171-173, 188, 200, 
209-211, 270, 285, 361. 

Arricivita, Fray Juan Domingo, 262, 
291. 

Arrillaga, José Joaquin de, 349, 367, 
370, 372, 380-382, 384-391, 421, 422, 
427, 432, 438-440, 443, 448, 449, 
461, 465, 468-474, 490, 491, 494. 

Arroita, Fray José de, 347. 

Arteaga expedition, 299, 300, 302. 

Arteaga, Ignacio, 299. 

Ascension, Fray Antonio de la, 25, 
26, 37. 

Asistencia of San Rafael Arcangel, 
493, 513. 

Astrolabe, 354, 357. 

Atherton, Gertrude Franklin,—Cali- 
fornia: An Intimate History—t1oo. 


438, 


la Concepcion 


[ 525 ] 


526 


Atrevida, 363. 

Avila, Anastasio, 496. 

Ayala, Juan Manuel de, 220-224, 230, 
266, 291. 

Azuela, Manuel de la, 338. 


Baegert, (S.J.), Jakob, 47. 

Ballesteros, Juan, 408, 409. 

“Baltimore Ships”, 500, 501. 

Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 191, 458. 

Bancroft, Hubert Howe,—History of 
Alaska, Vol. I—179. 

Bancroft, Hubert Howe,—History of 
California, Vol. I—7, 18, 22, 55, 57, 
59, 63, 67, 70, 82, 91, 98, 102, 103, 


105, 159, 164, 205, 258, 271, 277, 
280, 287, 292, 294, 295, 297, 301, 
317, 328, 331, 337, 341, 347, 349, 
351, 355, 359, 366, 368, 369, 381, 
385, 386, 393, 397, 401, 402, 404, 
408, 414. 


Bancroft, Hubert Howe,—History of 
California, Vol. I1—427, 428, 430, 
438-440, 442, 443, 446, 463, 464, 
469, 478-480, 484, 485, 493, 495, 
496, 499, 501, 504, 507, 512, 513, 
516, 519, 520. 

Bandini, José, 511. 

Baranov, Aleksandr Andréevich, 429, 
434, 446, 470, 473, 488, 489. 

Barcenilla, Fray Isidoro, 408. 

Barreneche, Fray Juan, 312, 
317. 

Barri, Felipe, 143, 144, 165, 181, 182, 
200, 202, 203, 270, 273. 

Basadre y Vega, Vicente, 353, 355. 

Belena, Eusebio Ventura, 160. 

Benedict IV, Pope, 290. 

Bering, Vitus, 180. 

Bernadone, Giovanni 
see St. Francis. 

Bertodano, Cosme, 394. 

Bings, 180, 181, 194. 

Bodega y Cuadra, Juan Francisco de 
la, 220, 224, 299, 300, 374-377, 


380, 382, 390, 397. 
Bolanos, Francisco de, 33. 


Bolddkov, 516, 517. 

Bolton, Herbert Eugene,—Relation 
of the Voyage of Juan Rodriguez 
Cabrillo, 1542-1543, from Spanish 
Exploration in the Southwest, (one 


315, 


Francesco,— 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


of the series of Original Narra- 
tives of Early American History, 
reproduced under the auspices of 
the American Historical Associa- 
tion), translation supervised and 
edited by, 12. 

Bolton, Herbert Eugene,—The Diary 
of Vizcaino, from Spanish Explora- 
tion in the Southwest, (one of the 
series of Original Narratives of 
Early American History, repro- 
duced under the auspices of the 
American Historical Association), 
translation supervised and edited 
by, 26, 36. 

Bonaparte, Joseph, 449. 

Bonaparte, Napoleon, 449. 

Boniface VIII, Pope, 410. 

Bonilla, Antonio, 210, 211. 

Bordelais, 490. 

Borica, Diego de, 388-392, 396-398, 


401-404, 406, 412-414, 417, 419- 
423, 474. 

Borica, Maria Magdalena de, 388, 
422. 


Boronda, Manuel, 418. 
“Boston Ships’, 358, 359, 500, 501. 
Bouchard, Hippolyte, 501, 504, 505- ~ 


sto, sis: 
Boussole, 354, 357: 
Branciforte, Miguel de la Grua 


Talamanca y Branciforte, Mar- 
qués de, 388, 396. 

Branciforte, Villa de, 400, 402-405, 
420, 499. 

Bravo, Antonio, 219. 

Broughton, William R., 374, 380, 390, 
393, 397- 

Brown, John, 423, 424, 427, 428. 

Bucareli y Ursta, Antonio Maria, 
143, 144, I51-153, 155, 156, 158, 
159, 161-163, 170-174, 177, 178, 
181, 182, 188, 190, 193, 200, 202, 
203, 207, 209-211, 218, 225, 229, 239, 
270, 273, 276, 285-288, 290, 299, 305, 
311, 329. 

Burleigh, William Cecil, Baron, 15. 

Burriel, (S.J.), Andrés Marcos, 41, 
42, 47. 

Bustamante, Carlos Maria, 360. 

Bustamante y Guerra, José de, 


363. 


se. 


INDEX 


Caamano, Jacinto, 374. 

Caballero, Andrés Arias, 313. 

Cabeza de Vaca, Alvar Nijfiez, 3. 

Cabrera Bueno, José Gonzalez, 72, 
73, 82, 91, 97, 98, 102, 105, 114, 
IIS. 

Cabrillo expedition, ix, 5, 11, 13, 22, 
29, 99. 

Cabrillo,—see Rodriguez. 

Cabrillo, Juan Rodriguez,—Relation 
of the Voyage of (Bolton), 12. 
Cabrillo, Juan Rodriguez,—Relation 
or Diary of the Voyage of 

(Evans), 6. 

Cacafuego, 17. 

Calahianx: 

Calleja, Félix Maria, 455, 473, 488. 

Callis, Rosa de, 331. 

Camboén, Fray Pedro Benito, 131, 
182, 260, 264, 266, 267, 302, 303, 
32354922, 

Cameron,—see Gilroy. 

Campa y Cos, Fray Miguel de la, 69, 
220, 

Cancio, Lorenzo, 160. 

Cafiizares, José, 68, 212, 222, 223, 
264, 266, 267. 

Careri, Giovanni Francesco Gemelli, 

tS, 

Carlos III, of Spain, 43, 54, 59, 65, 
£165/027,.157,-461, 762. 

Carlos IV, of Spain, 362, 448. 

Carmen, Our Lady of, 26. 

Carrillo, Carlos Antonio, 478, 479, 
506. 

Carrillo, Guillermo, 269, 277, 278. 

Casafonda, Manuel Lanz de, 147. 

Castro, Francisco, 275, 291. 

Castro, José Mariano de, 480, 494. 

Castro, Macario, 407. 

Castro, Maria Lugarda de, 480. 

Catala, Fray Magin, 408. 

Catalan Volunteers, 66, 82, 114, 174, 
203, 204, 317, 398, 406, 429. 

Catherine I, of Russia, 180. 

Cavaller, Fray José, 137, 138, 342. 

Cazadora, 487, 488. 

Chamisso, Adelbert von, 483, 485, 
486. 

Chapman, Charles Edward, tor. 

Chapman, Charles Edward,—Found- 
ing of Spanish California—4o-42, 


527 


51, 52, 60, 112, I41, 144, 147-149, 
154, 159, 162, 168, 169, 181, 194, 
201, 311. 

Chapman, Charles Edward,—His- 
tory of California—2s5, 104, 183, 
224, 338. 

Chapman, Joseph, 504. 

Chatham, 374, 375, 379, 380, 384, 390, 


393. 
Chirikov, 465, 466, 477, 488, 489. 
Chirikov, Aleksieéi, 180. 

Choiseul, Duc de, 43. 

Choquet de Isla, Diego, 268, 269. 

Choris, Ludwig, 485. 

Cieca, Pedro, 356. 

Clarion, 499. 

Clement X, Pope, 410. 

Clerke, Charles, 279. 

Cleveland, Richard J., 424-428, 430. 

Colonel, 481. 

Columbia, (American), 358, 359, 375. 

Columbia (British), 478, 481. 

Columbus, Christopher, 1, 5, 48, 68. 

Concepcion, 48, 61, 67, 195, 372, 399, 
402, 412, 422. 

Cook expedition, 279, 358. 

Cook, James, 279, 280. 

Cooke, John,—Appendix IV, The 
World Encompassed by Sir Fran- 
cis Drake . . . With Appendices 
Illustrative of the same Voyage, 
and Introduction by W. S. W. 
Vaux, (Hakluyt Society, London), 
Te 

Corbalan, Pedro, 307, 309, 330. 

Cordoba, Alberto de, 398, 400, 401, 
403, 404. 

Corney, Peter, 501, 502, 508, 509. 

Corney, Peter,—Voyages in the 
Northern Pacific—Reprinted from 
The London Literary Gazette of 
1821—With Preface and Appendix 
of Valuable Confirmatory Letters 
—Prepared by Prof. W. D. Alex- 
ander (Honolulu), 502, 503, 505, 
506, 508, 509. 

Coronado, Francisco Vasquez de, 4, 
8. 

Coronel, Juan, 77. 

Cortereal, Gaspar, 2, 17, 30. 

Cortés, Hernan, ix, 2-5. 

Cossack, 511. 


528 


Costansé, Miguel, 61, 68, 71, 75, 76, 
78, 82, 88," 91, 96)" TOL) E13, 119, 
121, 153, 154, 396. 

Costansé, Miguel,—Diary of (Lum- 
mis), 75. 

Costans6é, Miguel,—Diary of (Teg- 
gart), 88. 

Coues, Elliott, 234. 

Coues, Elliott,—On the Trail of a 
Spanish Pioneer; the diary and 
itinerary of Francisco Garcés .. . 
(American Explorer Series III), 
translated and edited by, 234, 237, 
239, 240, 241, 242. 

Crespi, Fray Juan, 45, 68, 77, 82-85, 
87, 89-93, 96, 97, 102-104, 107-109, 
II4-116, 125, 130, 134, 136, 139, 
149, 184, 212-215, 256, 267, 336. 

Crespi, Fray Juan,—Diario (Palou), 
(Richman,—California Under 
Spain and Mexico—from the F. de 
Thoma Translation, Los Angeles 
Times, 1898), 93. 

Crespo, Francisco, 
211. 

Croix, Marqués (Carlos Francisco) 
de, 58-60, 108, 119, 120, 130, 136, 
140, 145, I51, 152, 157, 161, 169, 
201, 203, 286. 

Croix, Teodoro de, 286-289, 293-296, 


185, 186, 188, 


305-307, 309-311, 313, 316, 322, 
323, 329, 337, 338, 344, 360. 
Cruillas, Joaquin de Montserrat, 


Mardqués de, 58. 
Cruz, José de la, 474, 512. 
Cruzada, Fray Antonio, 133. 
Cuerno Verde, 338. 


Dedalus, 375, 379, 384, 390. 

Danti, Fray Antonio, 412. 

Da Silva, Nufio, 14, 16, 17. 

Davidson, George,—An Examination 
of some of the Early Voyages... 
1539-1603 . . . (U. S. Coast and 
Geodetic Survey, Annual Report, 
1886), 11. 

Davila, José, 193. 

Davydov, Gavriil 
437. 

Delgado, Ignacio, 510. 

Descubierta, 363. 

Diaz del Carpio, José Manuel, 169. 


Ivanovich, 435, 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


Diaz del Castillo, Bernal, 3. 

Diaz, Fray Juan, 186, 189, 196, 198, 
307-312, 315, 325. 

Diaz, Melchor, 4. 

Discovery, (Cook expedition), 279. 

Discovery, (Vancouver expedition), 
374-377) 379) 383, 386, 390. 

Doak, Thomas W., 480. 

Dominguez, Josefa Maria Ortiz de, 
451, 452. 

Dominguez, Juan José, 495. 

Dominguez, Miguel, 451, 452. 

Dorr, Ebenezer, 397. 

Drake expedition, 14, 23. 

Drake, Sir Francis, 13-22, 38, 383. 
Dumetz, Fray Francisco, 124, 125, 
130, 131, 135, 136, 139, 410, 461. 

Duran, Fray Narciso, 493. 


Eayrs, George Washington, 465. 

Echeverria, Agustin de, 324. 

Echeveste, Juan José de, 161, 174, 
201, 219, 284, 287, 302. 

Eixarch, Fray Tomas, 232, 233, 238, 


240, 262. 
Eldredge, Zoeth Skinner, 191. 
Eldredge, Zoeth Skinner,—Begin- 


nings of San Francisco—188, 190- 
192, 244, 262. 

Eldredge, Zoeth Skinner,—History of 
California, Vol. I, edited by, 5, 8, 
86, 89, 495. 

Eldredge, Zoeth Skinner,—March of 
Portola—85, 87. 

Eliot de Castro, Juan, 477, 484. 

Elisa, Francisco, 362. 

Elizabeth Petrovna, of Russia, 180. 

Elizabeth, Queen, 15. 

Elizondo, Domingo, 168, 169. 

Elizondo, Ignacio, 456. 

Engelhardt, (O.F.M.) (Fray Zeph- 
yrin in religion) Charles Anthony, 
40. 

Engelhardt, (Charles Anthony) Fray 
Zephyrinx—The Franciscans in 
California—46, 78, 80. 

Engelhardt, (Charles Anthony) 
Fray Zephyrin,—Missions and 
Missionaries of California, Vol. 1 
—40, 48, 69. 

Engelhardt, 
Fray 


(Charles Anthony) 
Zephyrin,—Missions 


and — 


on ae See. eee 


. 
i 


INDEX 


Missionaries of California, Vol. 
iiss, 90, 92, 97, 102, 115, 118, 
725, 126, 128, 129, 131, 133, 136, 
137, 142, 148, 150, 162, 176, 178, 
193,202, 213, 225, 229, 250, 251, 
253, 260, 263, 270, 282, 284, 291- 
297, 299, 322, 324, 325, 333, 335, 
364, 371, 372, 412. 

Ermak, Timoféevich, 179. 

Escaudron de Mazatlan, 511. 

Eschscholtz, Johann Friedrich von, 
485. 

Eschscholtzia Californica, 486. 

Espinosa, José Ignacio, 219. 

Esplandian, x. 

Estevanell, Ignacio, 143. 

Estrada, José Mariano, 449, 505, 
520. 


Estudillo, José Maria, 484, 514, 520. 
Estudillo, Magdalena, 475. 
Evangelista, Juan, 157, 176. 

Evans, Richard Stuart,—Relation, or 
Diary, of the Voyage which Juan 
Rodriguez Cabrillo made... for 
the Discovery of the Passage of 
the South Sea at the North... 
printed in a Report upon United 
States Surveys West of the rooth 
Meridian (Wheeler), (Washing- 
ton, 1879), Vol. VII,—from the 
Buckingham Smith Coleccién de 
Varios Documentos ... published 
in London (1857),—translated by, 
6578: 

Expedicion Santa, 65. 


Fabregat, Narciso, 510, 514. 

Fages, Eulalia Callis de, 330, 331, 
368. 

Fages, Pedro, 66, 71, 72, 76, 91, 93, 
POnmOetO4. 107, 114, 119, 124, 
125, 130, 131, 133, 134, 136, 137, 
139-146, 149, 150, 159, 174, 175, 
177, 181, 183, 184, 193, 197, 200- 
eos to,e222, 226, 253, 267, 270, 
285, 316-318, 322, 323, 328-331, 336, 
341, 342, 344-351, 353, 354, 359; 
360, 366-370, 389, 458, 461, 472, 
495. 

Fages, Pedro José Fernando 
drito), 330, 368. 

Fages, Pedro, (Richman, California 


(Pe- 


529 


Under Spain and Mexico, notes) 
93, IOI, 102. 
Fages (San _ Francisco) 
134, 253, 256, 267. 
Farveau Quesada, Antonio, 61. 
Favorita, 299, 300, 301, 324, 331, 333; 


expedition, 


354. 
Felipe III, of Spain, 71. 
Félix, Vicente, 345. 
Fernandez, Fray José Maria, 412, 


413. 
Fernando III, of Spain, 410. 
Fernando VII, of Spain, 448, 449, 


451, 517, 519. 

Ferrelo, Bartolomé, 5, 10. 

Fidalgo, Salvador, 362, 374, 393, 
396. 


Figuer, Fray Juan, 278, 282. 

Fletcher, Francis, 18, 99. 

Flora, 465, 481. 

Flores, Antonio, 34. 

Flores, Manuel Antonio de, 339, 357, 
362, 371. 

Font, José, 398. 

Font, Fray Pedro, 218, 231-244, 246- 
248, 250, 253, 254, 261, 301. 

Fent, Fray Pedro,—Diary of 
(Coues), 234. 

Font, Fray Pedro,—Diary of (Teg- 
@art), 23%. 

“Frances Fletcher,’”—see 
Francis. 

Franciscans, Spanish,—“This is the 
customary invocation placed at the 
beginning of all documents and 
letters written by Spanish friars of 
the Order of St. Francis. G. B. G.” 
(Documents from the Sutro Collec- 
tion, translated, edited, and an- 
notated by George Butler Griffin), 


Fletcher, 


79- 
Fuster, Fray Vicente, 227-229, 250, 
251, 260, 347. 


Gaetano, Juan, 279. 

Galaup, Jean Francois 
Pérouse. 

Gali, Francisco de, 22, 23, 38, 100. 

Galiano, Dionisio Alcala, 374. 

Galindo Navarro, Pedro, 294, 311. 

Galvez, Anton de, 55. 

Galvez, Antonio de, 362. 


de,—see 


530 


Galvez, Bernardo de, 161, 338, 357, 
362. 

GAlvez, Conde de,—see Galvez, Ber- 
nardo de. 

Galvez Gallardo, José Bernardo de, 


55-68, 70, 82, 87, 97, 106, 107, I10, 
113, 117-121, 124, 140, 148, 159, 
160, 161, 165, 167, 169, 182, 200, 
201, 203, 270, 273, 285, 286, 288, 
301, 323, 329, 338, 339, 360-362, 
416. 


Galvez, Matias de, 362. 

Galvez, Miguel de, 161, 362. 

Garcés, Fray Francisco,—Diary of 
(Coues), 234. 

Garcés, Fray Francisco Hermene- 
gildo, 153-156, 170-172, 177, 178, 
186, 189, 196-198, 218, 232-234, 237, 
238, 240-242, 252, 253, 262, 305-309, 
311, 312, 315, 317, 318, 325, 459. 

Garcia, Fray Diego, 365. 

Garcia, Fray José, 44, 290, 291. 

Gaston, Fray Juan Ignacio, 46. 

Gentila,—see Argentina. 

George III, of England, 279. 

Gil de Bernabé, Fray Juan Crisés- 
tomo, 155. 

Gil y Taboada, Fray Luis, 493, 497. 

Gili, Fray Bartolomé, 371-373. 

Gilroy, John, 480. 

Godoy, Manuel de (“The Prince of 
Peace”) Duke de Alcudia, 393. 
Golden Hind, 16-18, 20, 21, 99, 377: 
Golovnin, Vasilii Mikhailovich, 489, 

490. 

Gomez, Fray Francisco, 72, 74, 82, 
124, 125. 

Goémez, Fray Pedro,—see Gomez, 
Fray Francisco. 

Gomez, Juan Criséstomo, 367. 

Gomez, Luciano, 504. 

Gomez, Manuel, 504, 520. 

Gomez de Ulloa, Gonzalo, 511. 

Gongora, José Maria, 257, 259. 

Gonzalez, Diego, 314, 349. 

Gonzalez, Epigmenio, 452. 

Gonzalez, José,—see Cabrera Bueno. 

Gonzalez, Juan, 303. 

Goycoechea, Felipe de, 367, 370, 386, 
396, 414, 423. 

Grajera, Antonio, 386. 

Gray, Robert, 375. 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


Greenhow, Robert,—History of Ore- 
gon and California—3, 4, 215. 

Gregory IV, Pope, 48. 

Grijalva, Juan Pablo, 219, 232, 242, 
248, 264. 

Grimaldi, Marqués de, 57, 60. 

Guadalupe, Our Lady of, 11, 452. 

Guadalupe de Zacatecas, College of, 
290, 299. 

Guatemala, College of, 290. 

Giiémes, Juan Vicente,—see Revilla 
Gigedo. 

Guerra y Noriega, José de la, 478, 
479, 499, 500, 507, 508, 516, 519, 
520. 

Guerrero, Vicente, 517. 

Guillen, Antonio, 426. 


Gyzelaar, Henry, 478, 479, 499. 


Hageméister, Ledéntii Andridnovich 
von, 489, 490, 516. 

Hakluyt, Richard, ix, 67. 

Hakluyt Society, 14. 

Hale, Edward Everett, x. 

Haro, Francisco de, 510, 511. 

Haro y Peralta,—see Peralta. 

Hazard, 428-431. 

Heceta, Bruno de, 219-221, 223, 230, 
303. 

Hermosa Mexicana, 487, 488. 

Herreria, Vizconde de la, 60. 


Hidalgo y Costilla, Miguel, 450-457. 


Hittell, Theodore Henry,—History of 
California, Vol. I—13, 17, 36, 41, 
43, 47, 66, 109, 111, 158, 345, 352, 
360, 417, 419, 421. 

Holder, Charles Frederick,—Chan- 
nel Islands of California—4. 

Horcasitas, 377. 

Horra, Antonio de la Concepcién, 
409, 411-414. 

Humboldt, Friedrich Heinrich Alex- 
ander von, 356. 


Ibarra, Juan Maria, 510. 
{?'men’, 476, 477, 484. 
Imparan, José, 301. 
Iphigenia, 358. 

Isabella, 466. 

Islas, Santiago de, 314. 
Iturbide, Agustin de, 517, 518. 
Ivan Vassilievich II, 179. 


INDEX 


Jaime, Fray Luis, 130, 136, 144, 226- 
229. 

Janvier, Thomas 
can Guide—457. 

Jiménez, Mariano, 456, 457. 

Juno, 436, 440, 443, 444, 446, 447. 


Allibone,—Mexi- 


Kadiak, 446, 447. 

Kamchatka, 489. 

Kendrick, John, 359. 

Khliebnikov, Kirill Timoféevich, 516. 
Khvostov, Nikolai Aleksandrovich, 


435. 
Kino (S.J.), Eusebio Francisco, 152. 
Kopylov, Andrei, 179. 
Kotzebue expedition, 482. 
Kotzebue, Otto von, 482-484, 487. 
Krenitzin, Petr Kumich, 180o. 
Krenitzin-Levashef expedition, 180. 
Krusenstern, Adam Johann von, 435. 
Krusenstern expedition, 435, 437, 438. 
Kuskév, Ivan Aleksandrovich, 446, 
465, 466, 470-473, 477, 483, 484, 
488. 
Kutuzov, 489. 


Labaquera, Pedro de, 40, 50, 51. 

Lady Washington, 358. 

Landaeta, Fray Martin, 
412. 

Langle, M. de, 354, 355, 357- 

Langsdorff, Georg Heinrich von, 
435, 437, 438. 

Langsdorff’s Voyages, 442, 443. 

Lara, José de, 320, 321. 

Larios, José Maria, 494. 

Lasso de la Vega, José Ramon, 349, 
350, 417, 418. 

Lasuén, Fray Fermin Francisco de, 
G3.) 482,998, 226, 251, 269, 278, 
282, 283, 336, 344, 346, 353, 356, 
365, 372, 386, 387, 395, 407-410, 
412, 414-417. 

Lelia Byrd, 424-428, 430. 

Levashef, Mikhail, 180. 

Libertad,—see Santa Rosa. 

“Lima Ships”, 481, 487, 500, 515. 


378, 381, 


Limon, Cayetano, 218, 219, 314, 316. 


Listanskii, Urii Fedorovich, 435 
Lobeira, Vasco de, x. 

Loera, Reverend Nicolas, 300. 
Lopez, Fray Baldomero, 365, 497. 


531 


Lépez de Haro, Gonzalo, 357, 358. 

Lorenzana y Butron, Francisco An- 
tonio, 58, 117. 

Loreto, Our Lady of, 47, 48. 

Los Angeles, Pueblo of, 310, 320, 321, 
344, 477, 496, 508. 

Louis IX, of France, 410. 

Louis XV, of France, 43. 

Loyola, Ignatius, 43. 

Lummis, Charles F.—Duary of Juni- 
pero Serra (Out West, Vol. XVI), 
translated and edited by, 78. 

Lummis, Charles F—Dzary of Miguel 
Costansé (Diario Histérico) (Land 
of Sunshine, Vol. XIV), translated 
and edited by, 75, 79, 80, 89. 

Lydia, 478-480. 


Magallanes, 400. 

Magellan, Ferdinand, 2. 

Maitorena, José Joaquin, 459. 

Malaspina, Alejandro, 363. 

Maldonado, Lorenzo Fern4o de, 30. 

Manning, William Ray,—The Nootka 
Sound Controversy (House Docu- 
ments, Vol. 105; The American 
Historical Association Annual Re- 
port, 1904), 394. 

Manrique, Miguel, 220-222. 

Maria Dominica, Sister, 444. 

Martiarena, Fray José Manuel, 408. 

Martin, Fray Juan, 459. 

Martin de Palacios, Gerénimo, 37. 

Martinez, Estévan José, 300, 303, 
354, 357, 358, 359.. 

Martinez, Fray Luis, 484. 

Martinez, Maria Barbara, 351. 

Martinez, Fray Pedro Adriano, 408. 

Maurelle, Antonio, 220. 

Mayorga, Martin de, 284, 325. 

Mendoza, Antonio de, 3, 23. 

Mendoza, Bernardino de, 14. 

Menzies, Archibald,—Surgeon (Van- 
couver expedition), and a botan- 
ist of great distinction, 382. 

Mercury, 465, 481. 

Merino, Fray Agustin, 408. 

Mesa, Antonio, 321. 

Mexicana, 374, 376. 

Miguel, Fray José de, 412. 

Miranda, José Hilario, 408. 

Mission Nuestra Senora Dolorosisima 


5382 


Soledad (Maria Santisima, Nues- 
tra Senora de la Soledad), 365, 
407, 471. 

Mission Purisima Concepcion (Alta 
California), 275, 347, 462, 495. 
Mission Purisima Concepcién (Colo- 

rado River), 311, 312, 315. 

Mission San Antonio de Padua, go, 
122, (3255 125-120, 9396, 537; 229; 
223, 230, 248, 258, 281, 292, 321, 
364, 409, 411, 471, 475. 

Mission San Buenaventura, 121, 125, 
130, 133, 140, I41, 143, 146, 275, 
322, 323, 343, 347, 364, 386, 409, 
462, 513. 

Mission San Carlos de Borromeo, 
116, 121, 122, 125-128, 130, 136, 
139, 140, 176, 184, 193, 198, 202, 
216, 217, 248, 263, 270, 280, 251, 
291, 292, 296, 324, 332, 333, 335, 
337, 342, 355, 356, 364, 379, 387, 
407, 408, 415, 416, 423, 449, 463, 
476, 480, 494, 506. 

Mission San Diego de Alcala, 94, 


I2I, 125, 135, 140, 144, 226, 229, 
245, 258-260, 268, 269, 281, 291, 
292, 302, 343, 364, 410, 415, 416, 


432, 475. 

Mission San Diego de Nipaguay,— 
see San Diego de Alcala. 

Mission San Fernando Rey de 
Espana (Alta California), 410, 
461, 475, 496. 

Mission San Fernando (Baja Cali- 
fornia), 69, 77. 

Mission San Francisco de Asis, 122, 
134, 140, 208, 266, 268, 272, 284, 
303, 334, 343, 379, 407, 412, 492, 
493. 

Mission San Francisco de Borja 
(Baja California), 182, 183, 416. 
Mission San Gabriel Arcangel, 122, 
125, 130-133, 136, 138, 141, 143, 
186, 192, 195-198, 202, 209, 226, 
245, 247, 248, 252, 257, 258, 260- 
262, 269, 277, 281, 292, 296, 312- 
314, 316, 318-323, 328, 333, 364, 
409, 416, 461, 462, 491, 495, 497, 

514, 515. 

Mission San José, 407, 408, 494. 

Mission San Juan Bautista (Alta 
California), 408, 409, 480, 494. 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


Mission San Juan Bautista (Baja 
California), 183. 

Mission San Juan Capistrano, 226, 
229, 268, 269, 292, 364, 386, 389, 
410, 416, 433, 462. 

Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, 
122, 125, 129, 130, 134, 137, 139, 
226, 230, 260, 26%,, 271, 23t,cees, 
321, 342, 409. 

Mission San Luis Rey de Francia, 
410, 415. 

Mission San Miguel Arcangel (Alta 
California), 409, 411, 471. 

Mission San Miguel (Baja Califor- 
nia), 432. 

Mission San Pedro y San Pablo de 
Bicufier (Colorado River), 312, 
315. 

Mission San Xavier del Bac, 153, 
232y-234, 262. 

Mission Santa Barbara Virgen y 
Martir, 275, 324, 346, 411, 417, 
462. 

Mission Santa Clara de Asis, 
134, 271, 272, 276, 284, 300, 
364, 377, 379, 381, 407, 408, 

Mission Santa Cruz, 365, 401, 
494, 499. 

Mission Santa Inés, Virgen y Mar- 
tir, 87, 462. 

Mission Santa Rosalia (Baja Cali- 
fornia), 69. 

Mission Todos Santos (Baja Cali- 
fornia), 119. 

Mission Tubutama, 253, 317, 318. 

Missions, Colorado River Pueblo, 311. 

Missions, Peninsula, 136, 395. 

Missions, Santa Barbara Channel, 
286, 310, 312, 319, 321, 322, 324- 
327, 331, 346, 347, 353. 

Missions, Sierra Gorda, 46. 

Montalvo, Garci Ordofiez de, x. 

Monte Rey, Gaspar de Zufiga y 
Acevedo, Conde de, 22, 31, 36, 37. 

Montesclaros, Juan Manuel Hurtado 
de Mendoza y Luna, Marqués de, 
36, 37. 

Montserrat, Joaquin de,—see Cruil- 
las. 

Moraga expedition, 267. 

Moraga, Gabriel, 403, 404, 447, 459, 
460, 461, 467-470, 473, 514, 515. 


£22, 


334) 
416. 


4097, 


—— 


INDEX 


Moraga, José Joaquin, 218, 219, 232, 
243, 247-249, 253, 257; 258, 260, 
264-268, 271, 272, 276, 349, 360, 
459. 

Morelos y Pavon, José Maria, 457. 

Moreno, Fray Matias, 312, 315, 316. 

Morgana, Juan de, 25. 

Mugartegui, Fray Pedro Pablo, 176, 
193, 197, 212. 


Murguia, Fray José Antonio, 212, 
272, 334. 

Nadézhda, 435, 438. 

Navarrete, José Antonio, 510, 511, 
§20. 

Navarro, José Antonio, 320. 

Navidad expedition,—see Cabrillo 
expedition. 


Neva, 435, 438. 

Neve, Felipe de, 270, 273-276, 280, 
282, 285-289, 292-297, 304, 310, 313, 
316-325, 327-330, 337-339, 341, 347, 
360, 363, 369, 472. 

Nieto, Manuel, 495. 

Nikoldi, 446. 

Niza, Fray Marcos de, 3. 


Nobéa, Fray Diego, 327, 331, 333, 
334, 346. 

Nobéa, José, 300. 

Nocedal, Fray José, 264, 266, 275, 


291, $00. 

' Noé, Nicolas, 465. 

Noriega, Fray Matias Antonio de 
Santa Catarina y, 302, 342, 364, 
371. 

Northwest America, 358. 

Nueva Galicia,—see Santiago. 

Nuttall, Zelia,—New Light on Drake 
—14-16. 


O’Cain, 429, 430, 465. 

O’Cain, Joseph, 397, 429, 430, 434. 

Ocio, Manuel de, 62. 

Oconor, Hugo, 185, 211, 329. 

O’Donojti, Juan, 518, 519. 

Olbes, Fray Ramon, 499. 

Ordmas, Fray Cristdébal, 347. 

Ord, Maria de las Angustias de la 
Guerra de, 479. 

O’Reilly, Alejandro, 169, 188. 

Ortega, José Francisco de, 69, 78, 82, 
92, 98, 102, 113, 114, 135, 149, 175; 


533 


184, 195, 226, 229, 277, 278, 322, 
350, 367, 370, 458, 495. 

Ortega, José Francisco de,—Frag- 
mento (Bancroft,—History of Cali- 
fornia, Vol. I), 92. 

Ortega, Miguel, 495. 

Otter, 397. 


Paez, Juan, ix. 

Palacios, Gerdnimo Martin de,—see 
Martin de Palacios. 

Palma, Salvador, 187-190, 196, 198, 
207, 235-240, 246, 263, 305, 306, 
308, 309, 312, 314, 329. 

Palou, Fray Francisco, 45, 46, 64, 77, 
79, 80, 104, 136, 139, 149, 150, 156, 
157); 169, 181, 182-184, 193, 194, 
202,-.206,- 207,, 210, 212) 216, 217, 
250, 264-266, 276, 301, 302, 333-337, 
342, 343, 364, 372, 415. 

Palou, Fray Francisco,—Noticias de 
la Nueva California—1o7, 139, 
144, 169, 197, 337- 

Palou, Fray Francisco,—Vida (Life 
of Serra), 64, 77, 79, 80, 97, 107, 
116, 131, 133, 144, 229, 293, 332- 
334, 337: 

Pangua, Fray Francisco, 260, 325- 
327. 

Pangua, Fray Tomas de, 372, 373. 

Parron, Fray Fernando, 67, 74, 114, 
eM 

Paterna, Fray Antonio, 130, 133, 149, 
157, 182-184, 347. 

Payéras, Fray Mariano, 
497, 519, 520. 

Paz y Religion, 474, 484. 

Peacock, 433. 

Pedro y Gil, Rafael, 348. 

Pelican, 15, 16, 99. 

Pehia, Fray Tomas de la, 139, 212, 
225,5200, 1271, 527 2- 

Peralta, Alonso Nufez de Haro y, 
176. 

Peramas, Melchor de, 209. 

Pérez, Juan, 65, 70, 72, 74, I11-113, 
116, 126, 137, 139, 144, 193, 194, 
196, 201, 210, 212-215, 219, 220, 224. 

Pérez de Marchena, Fray Juan, 48. 

Pérouse expedition, 354, 357. 

Pérouse, Jean Francois de Galaup, 
Comte de la, 354, 355, 357,474) 485. 


1oI, 466, 


534 


Peter the Great, 179. 
Peyri, Fray Antonio, 410. 
Philip III, of Spain, 22. 
Phanix, 396, 430. 
Pico Javier, Miguel, and Patricio, 
495. 
Pico, José Dolores, 514. 
Pico, Patricio, 496. 
Pieras, Fray Miguel, 128. 
Pierce, Sir Thomas, 393, 394. 
Pineda, Juan de, 160, 169. 
Pino, Miguel del, 74, 116, 137. 
Pious Fund, 122, 123, 219, 325, 415. 
Pison, 61. 
Podushkin, Yakov, 488, 489. 
Polanco and Rodriguez, 495. 
Pompadour, Madame de, 43. 
Porcitincula, Our Lady of the Angels 
of, 85. 
Portilla, Pablo de, 510, 520. 
Portola expedition, 94, 96, 101, 104, 
106, (533; "2287 9834, 205, 226, en 
Portola, Gaspar de, 43, 46, 47, 50, 63, 
69, 77, 80-84, 91, 92, 97, 100-104, 
106, 108, 110-114, 116, 118-121, 140, 
142, 203, 320. 
Prat, Pedro, 75, 81, 113, 126, 166. 
Preciado, Francisco, ix. 
Presidios: 
Altar, 186, 188, 196, 197, 306, 
308. 
Buenavista, 218, 219, 305. 
Fronteras, 167, 168, 199, 218. 
Horcasitas, 219, 231, 236, 305, 
401. 
Janos, 167. 
Loreto, 432. 
Monterey, 116, 127, 130, 134, 135, 
197, 202, 217, 248, 253, 257, 
258, 265, 280, 342, 349, 350, 
409, 415, 421, 472, 477, 520. 
San Diego, 226, 229, 261, 271, 
351, 398, 428, 433, 520. 
San Francisco, 256, 263, 265, 
266, 272, 343, 344, 349, 377, 
379, 383, 398, 402, 407, 421, 
437, 447, 472, 478, 520. 
Santa Barbara, 275, 310, 322, 
343, 350, 423, 447, 472, 477- 
479, 519, 520. 
Sonoita, 307, 308, 317. 
Terrenate, 211, 219. 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


Tubac, 152-154, 156, 167-170, 
177, 186, 197, 199, 210, 211, 
218, 219, 223, "293; .0agzpeaess 

Priestley, Herbert Ingram, 55. 

Priestley, Herbert Ingram,—José de 
Galvez, Visitor-general of New 
Spain (1765-1771), (University of 
California, Publications), 56, 160, 
161, 362. 

Priestley, Herbert Ingram,—The 
Mexican Nation—A History—457, 
517, 518. 

Princesa, 293, 299, 301, 303, 324, 
354, 357, 358, 362, 374, 390, 399, 
429. 

Princess Royal, 362. 

Principe, 110, 126, 193, 206. 

Providence, 397. 

Puget, Peter, 392, 393. 

Putnam, Ruth, with the collabora- 
tion of Herbert Ingram Priestley, 
—California: The Name (Univer- 
sity of California, Publications), 
ix. 


Quijano, Manuel, 449. 

Quimper, Manuel, 362. 

Quintero, Luis, 321. 

Quirés expedition, 267. 

Quirdés, Fernando, 220, 264, 266, 267. 


Ralston, Jackson H.—Refort of 
(Excerpt from Engelhardt’s Mis- 
sions and Missionaries of Cali- 
fornia, Vol. 1), 123. 

Ramusio, Giovanni Battista, ix. 

Reglamento, Echeveste, 174, 201, 284, 
287, 302. 

Reglamento, Neve, 288, 289, 325, 327, 
341, 347. 

Reina de los Angeles, 511, 516. 

Rengel, José Antonio, 338, 339. 

Resolution, 279. 

Revilla, Cristébal, 219, 264. 

Revilla Gigedo, Juan Vicente 
Gtémes, Pacheco de Padilla, Hor- 
casitas y Aguayo, Conde de, 362, 
364, 368, 371, 374, 381, 388, 390. 

Reyes, Fray Antonio de los, 298, 299. 

Rezanov, Nikolai Petrévich, 434-447, 


474. 
Richman, Irving Berdine,—Califor- 


: 
: 
: 
: 


INDEX 


nia Under Spain and Mexico— 
50, 55, 58, 67, 80, 101, 102, 107, 
108, I12, 122, 140, 144, 148, 218, 
247, 259, 298, 341, 342, 369, 411, 
413, 415, 437, 440. 

Rioboo, Fray Juan Antonio Garcia, 
327, 331, 333, 346. 

Rivera expedition, 319. 

Rivera (San Francisco) expedition, 
aa6. 

Rivera y Moncada, Fernando Javier 
de, 61-63, 66, 68, 69, 71, 76, 82, 83, 
89, 91, 92, 96, 107, 108, 114, 119, 
T2itau,) 174, 175; 181, 184, 193- 
105,09208-205,,.207; 208,' 210, 212, 
216-218, 222, 225-227, 229, 230, 244- 
253, 257-264, 269-271, 274, 280, 286, 
288, 310, 312-315, 325, 458, 459. 

Rivero Cordero, Manuel, 61. 

Robles, Juan José, 313, 314. 

Roca, José, 398, 480. 

Redriguez, José, 418. 

Rodriguez Cabrillo, Juan, ix, 1, 5, 
7-10, 12, 28, 29, 31, 37-39, 86, 89, 
99. 

Rodriguez Cermenho, Sebastian Me- 
léndez, 20, 23-25, 33, 37) 38, 97, 98, 
100. 

Rodriguez, Manuel, 424-428, 433, 447. 

Rollin, M. de, 355. 

Roméu, José Antonio de, 323, 329, 
330, 341, 366-370. 
Roméu, Josepha de 

370. 

Roquefeuil, Camille de, 490. 

Rose, Robert Selden,—Dziary of 
Vicente Vila (Publications, Acad- 
emy of Pacific Coast History, Vol. 
II, No. I) edited by, 74. 

Ross, 468. 

Rouissillon, Count, 425. 

Rowan, James, 428, 429. 

Rubi, Marqués de, 168. 

Rubi, Fray Mariano, 365, 371-373. 

Ruiz, Francisco Maria, 508, 520. 

Rurik, 482, 484. 

Russian American Company, 435. 


Sandoval de, 


Sal, Hermenegildo, 350, 351, 370, 
377, 378, 381, 383, 384, 387, 404, 
405, 414, 423. 

Salazar, Fray Isidro Alonso, 365. 


535 


Salazar, Juan, 456. 

Salvatierra (S.J.), Juan Maria, 152. 

San Agustin, 23-25, 33, 100. 

San Antonio, 61, 65, 67, 70-75, 79, 81, 
99, 106, 107, 110-113, I15, 116, 119, 


I2I, 124-127, 137, 139, 144, 145, 
193, 204, 205, 206, 212, 220, 225, 
268, 301, 487. 

San Antonio de Padua (St. An- 


thony), 70, 215. 

San Buenaventura, 24, 25. 

San Carlos, 61, 65-68, 70-76, 79, 106, 
114, 121, 124, 137, 139, 145, 150, 
TST; 154, 9194,-197,0 201, 4202, 204; 
207, 212, 220-224, 230, 264-267, 301. 

San Carlos de las Filipinas, 303, 331, 
333, 357, 484, 487, 511, 513, 516. 

San Carlos, Custodia of (Sonora), 
298, 299. 

Sanchez, Fray Francisco Miguel, 283. 

Sanchez, José Antonio, 514. 

Sancho, Fray Juan, 336, 346. 

San Diego, 26, 33-35, 70. 

San Diego de Alcala, 28. 

San Fernando, College of, 122, 124, 
725.0346; 156-153,09376, ) 197, S212, 
229,260, 262,°270,) 290, 291, 2293, 
299, 322;1324; 9325, - 334,336,943, 
364, 371, 372, 395-415, 463, 476, 
493, 497. 

San Fernando Rey de Espana, 86. 

San Francisco de Asis (St. Francis), 
97. 

San Francisco, Nuestro Padre, 183. 

San Francisco Solano, 332. 

San Gabriel, Custodia of (Alta Cali- 
fornia), 298, 299. 

San José, 301, 302. 

San José (expedicion santa), 67, 71, 
99, 102, 106, 107. 

San José (St. Joseph), 65, 82, 110, 
Liz, 136; 

San José, Pueblo of, 277, 288, 302, 
344, 345, 404, 417, 447, 494. 

San Juan Nepomuceno (St. John of 
Nepomuk), 215. 

San Salvador, 5, 12. 

Santa Clara de Asis, 215. 

Santa Cruz at Querétaro, College of, 
153, 157, 290, 298, 306. 

Santa Gertrudis, 374. 

Santa Justa,—see Descubierta. 


536 


Santa Maria, Fray Vicente de, 220, 
223, 264, 386. 

Santa Rosa, 501, 502, 506. 

Santa Rufina,—see Atrevida. 

Santiago, 193, 194, 196-198, 202, 205, 
209-213, 215, 216, 219-221, 224, 
275, 291, 298-300, 302, 303. 

Santiago, Fray Juan Norberto de, 
410. 

San Tomas, 26, 32, 70. 

Santo Domingo, Nuestro Padre, 183. 

Sarria, Fray Vicente Francisco de, 
449, 463, 493, 520. 

Sastre, Mateo, 153, 155, 156, 169-172, 
185. 

Saturnina, 376. 

Sean, Fray José Francisco de Paula, 
463, 474, 520. 
Serra,—Diary of 
(Lummis), 78. 
Serra, Fray Junipero, 44-46, 63, 64, 
67-69, 77, 78, 80, 81, 94, 95-97, 104, 
105, 108-110, 112, 113, 116, 122, 
125, 127-130, 133-140, 142, 143, 145, 
148-150, 156-159, 162-166, 175-178, 
184, 193, 196-198, 201, 202, 204- 
210, / 212, 215) 1246, 0225,- 226," 220, 
248, 250, 260, 264, 268-270, 274, 
282, 283, 286, 290-297, 304, 321, 
322, 324, 330, 331, 333-336, 395, 

461. 
Serra, Miguel José (Fray Junipero), 


Fray Junipero 


44. 

Shaler, William, 424-428, 430. 

Shélekhov, Grigérii Ivanovich, 434, 
436. 

Sierra, Fray Benito, 220. 

Sinaloa, 61, 62. 

Sitjar, Fray Buenaventura, 128, 409, 
411. 

Smith, William, 476, 478-480. 

Sola, Pablo Vicente de, 474-483, 488- 
493, 499, 501, 503, 505-507, 510- 
513, 516, 517, 519, 520. 

Soldados de Cuera, 68. 

Soler, Juan, 193. 

Soler, Nicolas, 328, 341, 344, 347-351. 

Soler, Pablo, 370, 372. 

Somera, Fray Angel, 131. 

Sonora, 220, 221, 224. 

Sonora (José de Galvez), Marqués 
de, 361. 


SPANISH ALTA CALIFORNIA 


Sorrows, Our Lady of, 131. 

St. Agatha, 333. 

St. Dominic (called “de Guzman’), 
183. 

St. Ferdinand, King of Spain, 86. 

St. Francis—“The Seraphic Saint” 
(Giovanni Francesco Bernadone), 
44, 48-50, 65, 85, 90, 98, 134, 183, 
371, 411. 

St. Helens—Alleyne 
Baron, 393. 

St. Louis, King of France, 410. 

St. Mary of the Angels, 85. 

Stillman, J. D. B.—Seeking the 
Golden Fleece—17. 

Suner, Fray Francisco, 519. 


Sutil, 374, 376. 
Suvorov, 477. 


Fitzherbert, 


Tagle, 481. 

Talpa, Our Lady of, 215. 

Tamaron, Pedro, 169. 

Tapis, Fray Estévan, 417, 449, 463. 

Tarabal, Sebastian, 186-188, 190, 237, 
338. 

Tarakanov, Boris, 477, 484, 489. 

Taraval, Sigismundo (Bancroft,— 
North Mexican States and Texas, 
Vol. I), 41. 

Teggart, Frederick J.,—Diary of 
Miguel Costansé (Publications, 
Academy of Pacific Coast History, 
Vol. II, No. 4), edited by, 88, 93, 
96. 

Teggart, Frederick J.—Diary of 
Pedro Font (Publications, Acad- 
emy of Pacific Coast History, 1913- 
‘14), edited by, 232, 236, 244, 248, 
256, 261. 

Tikhménev, 
440. 

Tobar, José, 354. 

Toca, José Manuel, 418. 

Toison de Oro (San Carlos), 71. 
Tonatiuh (Prescott, William H.,— 
Conquest of Mexico, Vol. II), 5. 

Toro, Diego Gonzalez, 56. 

Torquemada, Fray Juan de, 25, 82, 
184. 

Torres, Alonso de, 374. 

Tres Reyes, 26, 33, 34, 37, 70. 

Trinidad, Fray Joaquin de la, 161. 


Petr Aleksandrovich, 


a ge 


aes 


ee ee, ee ee ee 


INDEX 


Tuthill, Franklinm—History of Cali- 
fornia, 20. 


Ugarte y Loyola, Jacobo de, 338, 
339, 344, 346. 

Ulloa expedition, ix, 4. 

Ulloa, Francisco de, ix, 4. 

Uria, Fray Francisco Xavier, 410. 

Uria, Fray José Antonio de, 437, 
438. 

Uribes, Tomas, 496. 

Urrea, Bernardo de, 188. 

Usson, Fray Ramon, 220. 


Valdés, Cayetano, 374. 

Valdés, Juan Bautista, 186, 196, 197, 
209, 210. 

Valdés, Salvador Menéndez, 374. 

Valle, Antonio del, 510, 511. 

Vallejo, Ignacio, 345, 404, 405. 

Vallejo, José de Jesus, 503. 

Vancouver, George, 374, 
389-393, 397, 420, 474. 

Vancouver, George,—d Voyage of 
Discovery ... Round the World 
(Polio, Vols. 1, 11, III), 375, 373, 


379; 382, 383, 385, 390-392, 420, 
485. 

Vancouver, John, 393. 

Vargas, Manuel, 368, 417. 

Vaux, William Sandys Wright, 15. 

Vaux, W. S. W., (Appendix II), The 
World Encompassed by Sir Francis 
Drake . .. With Appendices 
Illustrative of the same Voyage, 
and Introduction (Hakluyt Society, 
London), by, 18. 

Vega, Manuel de la, 298. 

Vega Carpio, Lope Félix de, 16. 

Velasquez, José, 426, 428. 

Venadito,—see Apodaca. 

Venegas, Francisco Xavier de, 454. 

Venegas, Miguel,—La Noticia de la 
California—47, 71, 82. 


377-387, 


537 


Venegas (S.J.), Miguel, 36, 41, 82. 

Verdugo, José Maria, 495. 

Verdugo, Mariano de la Luz, 495. 

Verger, Fray Rafael, 122, 146, 147, 
149, 157, 158, 162, 293, 295. 

Veteranos de San Blas, 511. 

Vidal, Mariano, 232. 

Vila, Vicente, 61, 65, 70-74, 81, 104, 
107; 109, IYO, X12, (114, 121, 147; 

Vila, Vicente,—Diary of (Rose), 73. 

Vildosola, José, 211. 

Villavicencio, Antonio, 320. 

Viniegra, Juan Manuel de, 104, 160. 

Fitoria, 3,10, 12. 

Vitovtov, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich, 
436. 

Vizcaino, Diary of (Bolton), 26. 

Vizcaino expedition, 22, 25, 37-39, 
70, 82, 99, 101, 116, 184. 

Vizcaino, Fray Juan, 72, 74, 94, 
114. 

Vizcaino, Sebastian, 22, 26, 28, 29- 
40, 71-73, 84, 89, 90, 94, 103, I14- 
S26 5°27T3, 


Washington, George, 359. 

Williams, Mr.—The Early Days of 
the Village of Branciforte (Santa 
Cruz Daily Item, 1876-77). See 
Bancroft, History of California, 
Vol. I, 404. 

Winship, Nathan, 476. 

Winships, of Boston, 429, 465. 


Ybafiez, Fray Florencio, 471, 491. 
Yorba, Antonio, 495. 


Zalazar, Fray Estévan de, 156. 

Zalvidea, Fray José Maria de, 491. 

Zuniga, José de, 313, 314, 351, 367, 
386. 

Zuniga y Acevedo, Gaspar de—see 
Monte Rey, Conde de. 


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